Ripples
by saggitaria
Summary: (Previously known as BUTTERFLY EFFECT) She created monsters unwillingly and tainted white walls with black and red, and painted vivid pictures of chaos. She was a walking disaster. She wanted to change things... and so she decided to. (Where Touka goes with Kaneki and his group. Disclaimer: i don't own the characters or the setting! )
1. Chapter 1

Home. It felt like something far out of her reach.

Every home she loved, was a mirage, it disappeared when she got too close.

The same goes with the people she loved.

Her mother: She doesn't remember her face, she doesn't even have a photo. She disappeared from her little world, but she still remembers warmth, happiness and small things which defines 'mom'.

Her father: She remembers his face as clear as day. She tries not to forget him. She imprints his picture into her heart. Dark blue hair, equally blue eyes and a smile that brightened up her world. This is what she remembers about him. She remembers him for his smiles and happiness. She remembers him for his love.

Her brother: She can never forget his face. She never will until the day she dies, but that day might be today. She remembered his smile, his tantrums, his frowns, his distaste towards humans and his hate towards her.

She will remember Ayato Kirishima as her brother/murderer.

She was not prepared.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGH" . She let out a scream almost animal- like, then again, she was a monstrosity, an animal made to kill. This was the circle of life doing it's job. The weak die, the strong triumph. Simple rules of the world.

She didn't want to die, but she accepted death.

Through her blurry vision, she saw blood splatter, saw the grey concrete of the floor, the blood splashed and formed circles and lines. The circles became blurs. Patterns which no one can understand formed, like those weird drawings she saw in museums.

She heard the noise of flesh being ripped apart, which she had already gotten used to. She heard bones break, she heard her own screams and somewhere in this mess of sounds, she heard a gulp, and another, and another and another AND ANOTHER, AND ANOTHER ANDANOTHER!.

SHE WANTED TO LIVE!

' _No! No! NonononononoNO! i wanna go back! Anteiku! Yoriko! School! Kaneki! He needs help! i need to go save him! Someone! ANYONE!? PLEASE!...please'_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _'Weak...I'm so weak'_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _'Mama, papa...where are you? I want to see you...I want to play...I want to help him...Ayato...don't..._

 _She saw Ayato, he was about five or four...that's the only Ayato she remembers...the rest is a mistake she made. She failed to protect him, so he sought to protect himself. She failed her dad, and her mom._

 _'Ayato ...just please-'_

 _"_ d-d-don't leave me alone"

.

.

.

.

"I won't"

It sounded like dad.

The noise stopped. A silence descended. Was this peace? Was this heaven? But she is bound to go to hell. She didn't care.

It still hurt. Her back still hurt, but she felt safer. Her eyes were heavy, but she still tried to pry them open.

She saw something. Black and white. Grey eyes? White hair and a smile. She closed her eyes. This person, it felt like he was lulling her to sleep. This person was not like her mother, soft and gentle, this person was kind of clumsy. This person did a terrible job at it.

She felt movement. She felt the ground again and finally decided to open her eyes. She tried to sit upright, leaning against whatever for support.

"Is that Kaneki?!"

'Nishiki? When did he come here?'

Touka looked towards where he pointed. She looked closely, she tried to observe him. He was fighting Ayato. This person was doing the same moves that she uses. It was the same style of fighting, but, there were many alterations too.

These techniques were taught to her by Yomo, but this person was clearly not Yomo. She looked closer and realized, it was Kaneki.

"Yeah" she replied way too late.

Nishiki stared at Kaneki in awe and she couldn't blame him. How did he get this strong? When did he do this?

Nishiki took out a mask and flung it towards Kaneki.

"Wear it! You fight better with it!" said Nishiki. Kaneki put it on.

Perfect.

He looked like one of those scary guys who scream trouble in scary movies. His look made no sense. White hair, black nails and an eye- patch mask with jaws and teeth. What was he supposed to be? A monster? He looked like one of those villains from horror books which he loved to read.

Why do authors, mangakas, directors and brats like monsters? Why are they so keen on creating something that destroys them?

No...Why are people so interested in breaking down people and making them something they are not?

Humanity, Ghouls, all of them are twisted.

She watched and remembered his smile. His smile was innocent and child- like. She was attached to him because of his kindness. He was weird honestly speaking.

He always trips and is clumsy, but what she is seeing now is fast and agile. He seemed like he was skating on the floor. His movements were swift, but, too many useless and wasted punches.

He wasn't acting on whim, he was calculating, analyzing. What move next? Where to block? Move away? Move closer? The only thing Ken had at that moment were half-practiced moves, raw power of Rize's kagune which he just flailed around and his brains. He was doing well, better than her anyways. He held his own against Ayato.

She made another mistake. She believed she was safe. She thought that there won't be any need for combat or fights and she grew to depend more on Anteiku. She was safe, but it was not guaranteed that those who were around her were.

What was she thinking? Going to school and interacting with humans made her believe she was one of them, but the undeniable truth is that she isn't. Humans didn't have to watch their back when they were alone, they didn't have to hunt, they didn't have to live in the fear that either themselves or their family was going to be killed any second, they didn't have to be afraid of grey coats and large suitcases, but she was.

Pathetic really. It was funny. Why are Kaneki and Ayato even fighting? Does Kaneki or Ayato even know? Is Kaneki fighting for her? They were acting like idiots(and they are). She was tired of this.

Touka watched in silence. Her past mistakes were what resulted in this. If she were a better sister, she could have stopped Ayato from going to Aogiri. If she were a better friend, she could have saved Kaneki.

The savior being saved...it's twisted logic.

* * *

 **Yo! i re- read this chapter and gagged at the amount of errors. I had to make changes. I was disgusted. Hopefully, this is better than before.**

 **Also, this is just a prompt I had in my head. I will not promise you guys good writing, because I'm no good when it comes to writing, but, I had to to do this because I wanted to find out who likes the idea of Touka going with Ken on his(pointless) mission.**

 **Hope you enjoy this story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry about all the mistakes in last chapter! i tried correcting everything i could to correct it. I realized after posting this story, that there was A FREAKING ANOTHER STORY WITH THE SAME THEME WITH THE SAME NAME! I 'm sorry! i had this idea ages ago, and i think i read this story too. I will change the name if i can. But i also need to change summary! Whatever it is, i will do something about the name. Please enjoy this chapter and sorry for all the mistakes!**

* * *

They were safe is what everyone felt, but, Touka didn't believe this and she never will. They were just safe for the time being.

"It's weird how tomorrow everything will go back to normal, can't believe I'm going back to college" said Nishiki

"Yeah" said Touka. She looked at Kaneki, expecting something. He did nothing. Touka took the initiative to start a conversation.

"You have to do something about your hair, it'll look weird when you go back" stated Touka. He looked back and smiled. It was not his normal smile, It was different. It was sad and seemed like he was mocking her for saying that, something in her mind tugged at her saying maybe he really was mocking her.

She waited for a reply, but, he simply looked at her searching for the right words for whatever he wanted to say.

"I'm...not returning to Anteiku" said Kaneki.

She had run through millions of scenarios in her mind but... this never came up.

"I have things to do. Aogiri...they are too dangerous to be just left like that"

Everyone listened to him patiently as if they had expected this. She looked at Irimi, Yomo, Uta, Shuu, Yoshimura. She expected them to show some form of shock or disbelief, she wanted them to question his decision and none of them did.

Wasn't he supposed to feel relieved that he can go back home? That he can go back to having a normal life? Why does he choose to run away from luxury?

"Banjou- san, would you like to help me out. Ichimi, Jiiro and Sante too" asked Kaneki.

'Why is he asking them? He plans on taking down Aogiri with this circus?!'

Shuu came to Kaneki and offered to be his 'sword'.

'You are going to be minced before you even get that 'sword' of yours out weakling Shitiyama!'

Nishiki offered, but Kaneki mentioned his human girlfriend and Nishiki shut up.

She waited too long, her hands were shaking and she felt hot and nervous and she didn't know why. No one did anything, and so she planned on doing it for them.

"Kaneki...I too.." started Touka.

"Touka- chan. Don't you have school?" asked Kaneki.

.

.

.

"I-"

"What about Yoriko- san and Anteiku? Didn't you want to go to college?"

Touka didn't know what to say. He was right. What about school and Anteiku? Will she really be able to leave it all for his 'mission'?

"Touka chan...I will come visit. I want to see your latte art again"

.

.

.

'He was joking right?'

.

.

Latte art? Latte art?! That's his reasoning for her to stay!? What was he thinking?

'You think i'll just stay here and make that crappy latte art while you go get yourself killed!? This guy won't make it!'

Touka made up her mind. She sighed in her mind and suppressed a laugh.

He sounded so stupid. At this rate, he will just go off on his own and get reckless. He was still too weak, his gang just made things worse. He will get into deep trouble if he went like this, she just knows he will.

Touka didn't want anything to happen to him again.

Never again will he wander off into danger alone. Kaneki was her responsibility, it's her fault he ended up like this. She doesn't want him to suffer anymore. She won't be able to stand that. She needs to stop being so weak and doing this might just be one step forward.

"I want to protect everyone..." he said.

She didn't want to get her heart torn apart anymore. It's been torn and stitched back too many times. The scars would never go away, they kept reminding her of her weakness but she always chose to ignore it, but, she wouldn't do that anymore.

" You won't live long enough to see that latte art then" said Touka.

Kaneki looked at her, his melancholic expression, replaced with shock.

"Wha-"

"You sounded so stupid right now. What happened? I thought you were supposed to be smart! _'I want to protect everyone'!?_ Are you going through the chuuni phase or something!?"

"Touka -chan?"

"I'm coming with you" said Touka. She stared right into his eyes to make her point. It was hard to look angry when he looked so broken. His eyes screamed 'help!'. Was she breaking him more? Was she doing the wrong thing?

'No! No turning back!'

He looked at the ground. "Don't you want a human life?" tried Kaneki.

"I'm a ghoul!" said Touka.

"What about school then!?" asked Kaneki, he sounded angry and was at a loss for words, he sounded defeated. Touka was annoyed.

"Then, what about college!?" asked Touka to him.

"What about Yoriko? "

At this point, it seemed like a competition in which whoever could come up with the best question wins. She felt so tired of his nonsense. She would have punched him if she had the strength, she would have beat him up so much not even his mom would recognize him, but, who was she kidding, even if they did fight, she was going to go down without even a decent fight. So she resorted to verbal conflict, but, that didn't seem like a good option either, but she had no choice.

"What about that Nagachika!?" asked Touka.

Kaneki didn't do anything. He looked down. Mentioning Nagachika got him.

He looked at her and sighed.

"I will be fine." said Kaneki as he lifted his hands to touch his chin.

"Sure you will! Yeah! You will be fine and dandy when you just barge into Aogiri and CCG and fight em with that group of yours! "

"Touk-"

"Just shut up already! You're annoying! I'm coming with you and that's that"

She sounded stupid. How would adding her into the group make a difference? But Kaneki didn't say anything. It was her victory today.

Kaneki looked at her, shocked. He looked so broken, he seemed so strong and ruthless when fighting Ayato, now, he seems like a kid who lost his way home. Touka couldn't handle shouting and glaring at him for too long.

Kaneki gave her a look which seemed like he was begging, and he might be. He seemed to try to say; 'Please, don't do this'

She looked at him, her features softened, she let her armor crumble. She to wanted to say; 'I can't take losing anyone anymore'

Both of them seemed to have understood each other.

* * *

They went back in Yomo's van. It was silent.

Hinami was sleeping, she was leaning on Touka's shoulder. Kaneki was looking out the window, trying not to sleep. Touka was exhausted, but, for some reason, did her best not to sleep. The atmosphere was tense and it weighed down on her.

She realized only after she sat in the van that her legs felt like dead weight. Her injuries were healing. She should have taken up Nishiki's offer to carry her.

She tried to distract herself from the pain.

Touka stared at Kaneki with the lack of nothing better to do since she finished staring at Hinami. The first thing she noticed was his was barefoot.

Around his toes were scar marks. They looked gruesome and his nails were black.

Kaneki finally did fall asleep and in his sleep, he mumbled god knows what. She looked at his hands and scar marks were there around his fingers. She looked closer and realized they were not scars. His fingers looked pink and the rest of his hand looked a pale white. His fingers and toes looked different, this differentiation fooled her into thinking they were scars.

She didn't want to think about it but, the fingers looked new, like a baby's hands when they are born, pinkish whitish? They looked soft. Touka leaned in closer to observe his hands, trying her best not to disturb Hinami. If she could just look closer.

Touka went back as he started to move and pretended to sleep, and at some point, she stopped pretending and really did fall asleep.

* * *

When she and the others had entered Anteiku, it felt unrealistic.

She strongly believed that she won't ever return to her sanctuary, not in one piece anyways.

"Welcome back!" said Koma like it was just another, normal day. It was a good thing he acted normal, if not, she would think way too much about everything. Her mind had been to places she never wanted to go to these past two weeks.

"We are back" said the manager. Everyone took a seat at the coffee shop and Irimi locked the front door and pulled down the blinds. It was pretty late and definitely not night anymore. She had school today, and today was probably going to be the last day she would wear that shitty uniform. She never liked it. The skirt was short and the shirt offerd no protection against cold, even when wearing the blazer, she felt no warmth.

The manager, Irimi, Koma and Yomo went to the kitchen, probably to get coffee beans to make that blackish brown beverage from heaven.

She truly believed ghouls of every age, no matter what side they were on, whether they loved to hunt or strongly refused to do so, everyone can agree on the fact that coffee is heavenly. It cheers everyone up, and coffee was necessary at this point, not to celebrate, but as a reminder to everyone, especially Kaneki that everything is fine.

It was a petty way of believing the lie that everything was fine. But Kaneki's snow white hair, black nails and dead eyes makes their lie hard to believe. The reality was too hard to digest, even for those who didn't go through the sufferer's pain.

Touka was sitting next to a sleepy Hinami, who was shell- shocked at everything that happened. Touka didn't know how she was going to explain to the girl the white hair, or what on earth happened to Kaneki. No one knew, except for those ghouls with Banjou and Banjou himself.

She looked at the walls, they were back to their normal color, the windows were replaced and the red on the walls were gone, but, she couldn't erase that horrific scene from her mind. Not now, not ever. She felt like she was in a dream, a good one or bad one, she didn't know.

It was stupid, how, she, a ghoul, attended school and lead an almost normal life the past 15 days, while Kaneki Ken, who was more human than her in every way, had suffered a ghoul's worst nightmare. She did not know what happened, but she sure as hell knew it was bad.

Yomo gave a cup of coffee to everyone. It was steaming, but, she did not wait for it to chill and drank it immediately. Everyone was silent, and everyone ignored each others' presence.

Touka went to the kitchen with her cup. She was the first to finish her coffee.

She went to the sink and began washing it. She did it slowly, lost in a daze, she was in no rush, but wanted to get out of Anteiku fast, the silence was crushing her. The sound of the water flowing filled her ears, and she decided to concentrate on that alone. It was uniform, and made no changes. She had put in the soap, scrubbed the cup as clean as possible, and repeated this cycle again.

' Kaneki...sorry... I should stop saying sorry. Sorry doesn't fix anything. Sorry can't turn him back to normal. Sorry is a stupid word used by idiots who have no excuse for their failure. Sorry is for the irresponsible and powerless...

...I am powerless...'

She believed she was strong, she defeated Nishiki with no effort and wrecked Tsukiyma when both were at full power, she went up against a first class investigator and killed countless ghouls single- handed. After witnessing Kaneki and Ayato fighting, she felt like her strength was a sick joke.

Her train of thoughts stopped when a new sound was heard.

Footsteps.

They were slow and quiet, as if the person didn't want to disturb a sleeping child.

She didn't look up. This person came behind her and stopped. She refused to look and continued to clean the cup though it was crystal clear. The cycle fastened it's pace.

"Touka- chan, don't you think that's enough?"

It was Kaneki. He sounded like he was trying to make a joke.

"I need to clean the cup" said Kaneki.

Touka didn't know how to respond.

'Should I say shut up?...No, I should say that I'm done. no, umh...wait, I need to respond fast'

" Yeah, go ahead" said Touka as she turned off the tap and went to get a towel to dry the cup.

'Shit! I should have offered to clean it for him! He's been through who knows what and I can' t even be sensitive! How the heck am I supposed to treat him now? This is a pain in the ass!'

"Kaneki, I'll clean it. Go home" said Touka.

"It's fine, I want to do it" said Kaneki. He was smiling, and just for a second, it felt like it was a normal day, where she and him where on cleaning duty.

"Okay" said Touka

Touka dried the cup and kept it inside the drawer.

"Touka chan?" called Kaneki.

"Yeah?" asked Touka, looking at the cups inside the drawer, refusing to look back at him. What expression should she make?

"I'm sorry," said Kaneki.

"Why?"

"It's because of me that you now have to quit school, and had to get hurt. Ayato- kun too. I'm sorry, for hurting him"

It was silent, and the tap was turned off.

She wondered why he was the one apologizing. If anyone was at fault it was clearly her. Touka had set all of this in motion. If she were stronger, she could have saved him. These past few days she craved for power. Her hunger for power from when she was a defenseless child, left to protect Ayato alone returned with full force.

"This was my choice. You had nothing to do with it" replied Touka.

"But it was because of me that you had to get hurt."

"No..." Touka turned around to look at him and continued, " It was my fault, and stop blaming yourself for everything. You did nothing wrong"

Kaneki pressed his thumb against his index finger and pushed until a sickening crack was heard.

"It was my weakness which resulted in this. In this world, being weak costs you. I had to pay the price, and I wasn't able to protect you"

Touka sighed. He was dead set on blaming himself, and she was also doing the same.

"...I'm the one who is supposed to be saying that" said Touka.

She closed the drawer and headed to the door. It was sad to see him blaming himself and carrying the weight of guilt on his fragile shoulders. She wanted to be punished for her sins. Kaneki was right, weakness costs a lot. She knew this best.

* * *

 **Chuuni phase: Basically trying to hard to act like adults, or trying to be different and dark/mature to show that they are different. Got this piece of info from Watamote( Watashi ga motenai no was dou kanagaetemo omaera ga warui!)**

 **I hope this was better than the first chapter. The first chapter sucked! I should have done better. Touka is such a confused mess right now, I hope no one was too OOC.**

 **Sorry if there were too many mistakes.**

 **Thank you for reading! *bows***

 **BTW, I corrected the mistakes. God! It was horrendous to look at. Sorry for putting you guys through the pain of reading that garbage. And thank you to everyone who continued reading this!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Personas: Touka believes Kaneki is weaker in comparison to many other ghouls out there. He might be stronger than her, but, Kaneki can't face everything in his current level. His plan is to fight against Aogiri, and most top members of CCG are stronger than him. Kaneki would be fine if he didn't fight much, but, his plan is to fight every bad ghoul. He is bound to die. Also, Touka didn't see the Kaneki vs Ayato fight since she fainted of pain. That's why she only saw small parts of the fight, that's also why i didn't write beyond that point. I will try to be clearer next time!**

 **Thank you for reviewing and reading. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Same goes to everyone who is reading this!**

* * *

The next day, Touka went to school late and getting ready was a blur. She reached school when it was already half- way into first period. Concentrating during classes took all she got, but, last night's events kept replaying over and over again in her mind in an endless cycle. She was staring out the window instead of looking at the board and was wondering what will happen to her from this day forward.

When in school, she had a future planned out, everything was set for her and she didn't need to think too much about anything except for food, but now, all she could see in front of her was a void. She had built an unstable bridge trying to hold it together with all her effort. She didn't want to disappoint the manager and so, she tried walking across it. Whenever she did try to walk on it, it kept shaking because of her doubt and fear which plagued her mind constantly.

She tried to remain calm, but, inside the darkest, the most ugliest corner of her heart, she feared everything. She couldn't come to trust anyone but, wanted a hand to reach out to her and say that it will be fine. The manager always tried, but, he never reached. Her father's easily took her hand in his and comforted her. Henever lead her out though.

Would she die? What was she supposed to do? She was going with Kaneki and his group, but not even Kaneki himself was clear on what he was going to do.

The bell rang and the class dispersed. Everyone got out of their seats to meet with their friends and share their lunches and talk about the recent gossips. Yoriko had come and she sat in front of her. Touka had a story planned out to tell to Yoriko. She couldn't just get away without telling anything, she had to give a valid reason of couldn't abandon Yoriko.

Yoriko was the only person brave enough to come up and talk to the isolated and cold her. Touka thought Yoriko would go away after a day or two, but, she always came to her desk during lunch break, took out her putrid lunch box in front of her and offered her the 'food' which she made. She always advised her to eat something healthier than soy bean bread and juice.

Touka was agitated and wanted to scream at her and chase her away, but, as time passed, agitation turned into curiosity. She was curious about humans and wanted to share her discoveries with someone, but no ghoul was interested in humans, well, except for the delicious flesh and blood of humans, humans had nothing else which interested ghouls. But, Touka was fascinated. She tried to get along with Yoriko, and after a year or so, Touka stopped viewing her as her 'lab rat' and considered Yoriko as a friend.

"Touka chan, you have been spacing out a lot recently, what happened?" asked Yoriko.

"Yeah...Listen. I want to tell you something"

"Yeah?"

" My dad asked me to go abroad with him" said Touka. Touka could hide things from Yoriko, but lying was hard. It took all her might to not start blabbering everything. She didn't need to pretend to be sad though, her emotions were very real. She didn't look into Yoriko's eyes and kept staring at the unopened bento in front of her.

"W-what? what are you saying?" asked Yoriko.

'Well, here goes nothing'

"My dad has already done all the paper works and stuff, I'm changing schools. i only got to know last week. Sorry"

"Why didn't you tell me yesterday, or the day before?!" asked Yoriko. She was clearly shocked. That was expected.

"Because...I wanted my last few days here to be normal and I didn't want you to be sad"

It was useless for Yoriko to try anything since at this point, nothing can be accomplished.

Yoriko looked like she was about to cry. She looked like she was trying to hold her tears back. She smiled a sad smile and looked up at her. She wasn't doing a good job at hiding her tears.

"Touka chan, you sound like you are never going to meet me again", she said Her voice cracked and she was struggling to sound normal.

'I don't know Yoriko...I don't know,' she wanted to say this, but, she won't, she can't.

"Of course it's not. I will meet you at a fancy restaurant or see you on TV on a cookery show or something!" said Touka.

Yoriko laughed a little.

"Sometime sooner. How about once every three months, or, we can text, or call each other!" said Yoriko.

"I don't know, the phone numbers change in foreign places, but the 'once -every- three months' thing might be possible. I will ask dad about it" . According to Yoriko, Touka's mom is dead, her dad is working abroad and her brother is a delinquent who is staying at his friend's place and refuses to come home.

"I will be here waiting for you okay, don't let me down. 3 months later, on the same day, i will be at the zoo and I will have a bento or cake prepared for you. You better come" said Yoriko.

It was weird how easily Yoriko accepted everything. She was worried for her, Yoriko never interacted with anyone and Touka was her first close friend. Yoriko did everything to keep Touka happy and Touka vice versa.

...

Smiling took effort, it hurt her mouth when she pretended to smile for too long, but around Yoriko, she could laugh and smile for hours and she never felt the pain, in fact, it felt good to smile. Yoriko was the first human she smiled around.

...

School ended and they parted ways with hugs, and in Yoriko's case ; hugs and tears. It took ages to make her stop, but Yoriko eventually did stop and waved Touka goodbye.

They both went their separate ways, but, Touka turned around every chance she got to look at Yoriko walking away, trying to etch her face in her head. Blonde hair, bubbly face, innocent eyes, short hair, fidgety sometimes, nervous, a beautiful heart and a smile which made her think that this world was perfect and she didn't need to stress about anything.

This was Yoriko.

...

* * *

 _'Touka chan?"_

 _"Yeah?"_

 _"Am I troubling you?"_

 _"What are you talking about?"_

 _"Everyone keeps saying that, you are hanging out with me because you feel pity. It's fine if you go. I don't want to trouble you" said Yoriko._

 _Touka looked at Yoriko in the eye, and flicked Yoriko's forehead._

 _"Are you an idiot? I never saw you as a burden. Don't listen to those idiots, they don't know anything about me. Don't ask this kind of nonsense again" said Touka. Yoriko lightened up and smiled._

 _"I made a new dish, want to try it?"_

 _"Of course" said Touka. A smile spread across her face without her knowledge._

 _..._

* * *

She walked away, wondering what excuse Kaneki had made to tell to Nagachika.

'Maybe he would say "I'm joining a heavy metal band because I have entered the goth face"'

Honestly speaking, Kaneki really did look like he was going to join a heavy metal band, a few tattoos and some piercings and he would be set. She needed to buy hairspray later, or he would look like that forever, and nail polish too. Nail polish was necessary.

'I should have asked Yoriko... Well, too late for that'

* * *

Ken had nothing planned to tell to Hide. He didn't want to face Hide. Going to college seemed impossible. In fact, his current situation itself was pretty much like a dream. He still believed he was with Jason, in that room, the smell of blood and rotting fingers lingering in the air, the feel of the shackles around his wrists and the numb feeling of sitting down for too long was what he thought will be his reality forever.

Every minute, Ken had to pinch his hands to check if everything was real, but, doing that wouldn't help. He became numb to pain, no, he ignored pain. It was the sad truth that, even if his hands were ripped out in the most painful way possible, he would remain still and calm.

Monsters can't feel pain.

He was in his apartment, it smelled of nothing. He sneaked in at four in the morning to get a change of clothes and packed a few things like clothes and one book in a small bag. This was probably his last day as 'Ken Kaneki'. He had not told anyone.

His 'family' would not care or even notice that he went missing. Hide would catch on and would probably start searching for him, maybe he is searching for him now, but he won't ever find him.

He wanted to talk to Hide. He wanted to say thank you for staying with him when no one else did, for helping him face this world a bit, for getting his head out of books for a while, for buying him hamburgers, for rescuing his precious books, for never leaving him and for walking alongside him.

There was so much more, so much more to tell, but, he cannot. If he met Hide, he would tell everything, like he used to and ask Hide to find a solution for his problems. He was always dependent. He needed someone to walk alongside him. Hide and his mother were the only ones who could do that.

He was abandoning someone this precious without so much as a goodbye.

He had choices to make, and he chose the right one, not the one which he likes

It was dark outside and the sun had begun to rise slowly.

He had to get out of here. He took the least amount of things possible since taking too much would catch the police's attention if they start searching for him. He can survive for a while with the money he got from working at Anteiku. The manager was going to give him the money for the work he had done before...all that.

The incident with Jason would haunt him forever. He can face anything, but never that, never, ever. It was stupid how he couldn't even say what happened to him to himself.

He opened the windows in his bedroom and jumped outside, it was dark and the shadow of the buildings helped cover him. He pulled up his hoodie and began walking towards Anteiku.

* * *

Tsukiyama was at Anteiku. He was excited, to say the least. Kaneki, had asked to meet him at the cafe to discuss something. Tsukiyama, of course, immediately accepted. Kaneki's new personality gave him chills. For human beings, he believed that the salt and pepper and other things were what made food delicious, in case of ghouls, it was personality the personality of the human he or she eats.

Kaneki has become the most savorable dish, and is continuing to evolve, he can't eat him now, he needed Kaneki to develop. In the end of his wait, Tsukiyama Shuu would eat a feast! He couldn't wait, he couldn't wait, HE COULDN'T WAIT!

' _Calm down!_ I will wait no matter how long it takes. _It will be worth it!'_

He, the ape man, and the black haired woman were the only ones currently there at the shop.

He was bored.

'I should have bought little mouse with me. She would show me some new things'

The little mouse; Chie Hori, was a marvelous little creature. She was an oddball to others, but, only he could see how interesting she truly is. The little mouse had helped him many times. She had the perfect, small stature which helped when it came to investigations and eavesdropping since most mistake her for a child.

Shuu heard the bell at the front door chime. He turned around to see Kaneki. He was wearing a light blue hoodie and jeans, and he was carrying a small bag.

"Good morning Tsukiyama san, Koma san, Irimi san" said Kaneki as he smiled. The other two wished back.

The smile, it was wonderful! It looked almost exactly like it did before, but, it had something new in it. It was sad.

It was like a poem, which only a certain few could understand. He greatly resembled little mouse sometimes, or did she resemble him? They both did things which he took time to comprehend.

" _Good morning_ Kaneki- kun" said Tsukiyama.

Kaneki walked over to Shuu and took the seat opposite to him.

"What did you want to talk about Kaneki kun?"

"Me and the others would need a place to stay. Do you think you could arrange something. It should be pretty isolated, less ghouls and investigators. We should also be able to get to other wards easily in less amount of time in case something happens."

'No beating around the bush I see. _Nice'_

"Of course. I will try my best, by when do you need this place?"

"By day after tomorrow, we need to move fast"

Shuu was shocked, where could he find this place, he should ask his servants to search. He could arrange something.

"Your wish is my command" said Shuu as he bowed a bit with his hand to his heart.

"I'm sorry for asking something like this so late" said Kaneki.

" _No!_ Do not apologize, this does not trouble me in the slightest"

"Also, i need information on all the wards and their leaders. I also want to know as much as possible about Aogiri tree and how they work. I only know the vague details, you can ask Banjou- san and the others for help"

"When do you want this?"

"By the end of this week, I want to know everything about Tokyo related to ghouls" said Kaneki

"Will do"

"Also..."

"Yes"

"I need a few books"

Books, he still loves them.

'I should give some recommendations'

"What are you looking for? Takatsuki again?"

"Basics of martial arts. Books like that"

Shuu was surprised. His eyes widened slightly, but , he won't let his astonishment show.

'He always manages to shock me'

"Yes. Anything else?"

"No." said Kaneki and he got out of his seat and headed towards the ape man.

"Koma-san, do you think I can see Yoshimura san?" asked Kaneki

"He should be up by now, go ahead" replied 'Koma'.

* * *

Yoshimura always rose with the sun. From his room, the sunrise and sunset was a sight to see. He thought he would get bored of it, but that day had not come, and he assumed it never will. He began with cleaning his room and once done, a cup of coffee to truly start the day. He never used the cafe's kitchen. Whatever was below, was for the customers alone.

He went to his cupboard and pulled out the can which had the coffee beans.

He was about to begin with making his coffee when he heard a knock. Yoshimura went to the door and opened it.

It was Kaneki.

"Welcome! What brings you here this early in the morning?"

"Sorry for troubling you manager" said Kaneki as he bowed.

"It's perfectly fine. Take a seat", said Yoshimura as he lead Kaneki to his living room, Kaneki took a seat on the sofa and Yoshimura sat opposite to him.

Kaneki looked up at Yoshimura, hesitating.

"Manager, I'm sorry for taking the decision of leaving without telling you properly"

"Well, you are here now. And even if you didn't tell, it would be fine, I am here to help those who want help. I am not worried about you since you are a smart kid, I know you can take care of yourself" replied Yoshimura.

Yoshimura hoped he was right. Kaneki never took an action without thinking through it, and certainly, he wouldn't do something rash which could harm himself or others, he hoped he was right.

Kaneki looked surprised and happy that he could gain Yoshimura's trust. He smiled.

"Have you informed your friends or family?" asked Yoshimura. Kaneki's smile fell.

"Do you plan on disappearing?" asked Yoshimura.

Kaneki nodded and Yoshimura continued, "It's expected. You cannot leave without explaining things. You took the right choice"

"Thank you" said Kaneki.

Yoshimura looked at Kaneki and asked something which had been at the back of his mind since last night.

"Do you really think that you need to go? This time, I am not asking you as the manager of Anteiku"

"Yes", said Kaneki. It was firm and conveyed everything. But Kaneki was a good actor,he could be pretending. Yoshimura had seen so many people like this before and he knew there was no changing Kaneki's mind.

"Did you have anything else to say?"asked Yoshimura.

"About Touka- chan. Can you convince her to not to come?" said Kaneki.

"Why?"

"It's too dangerous"

"I thought you wouldn't be getting into too much trouble?" replied Yoshmura. Kaneki wanted to reply, but, he could not refute that.

"Even if I did try talking to her, she wouldn't listen. Touka is stubborn. I can only do so much. She thinks she is being a burden. She always has" said Yoshimura, sighing.

"Of course she is not a burden!" said Kaneki.

"Do you think that can convince her out of it?"

Kaneki had nothing to say. Of course she won't listen, he should know this. Kaneki gave up and changed topics.

"Manager, can I stay here for two days?", said Kaneki.

"I don't think it's safe here, you should stay with Yomo for a while. If the police come here to search for you, you and Anteiku would be in trouble"

"Would it be all right with Yomo san?"

"Ask him when he comes today. I do not think he would mind much. For the time being, you can rest in Touka and Ayato's old room"

"Thank you manager", said Kaneki as he got up.

"You can come here any time you want. You are always welcome here" said Yoshimura, to remind him that he is not alone. But he knew it would never reach him.

"I will be looking forward to the coffee!", said Kaneki as he left the room, leaving Yoshimura alone.

'It would be lonely without those two. We need an extra hand here'

* * *

 **This chapter felt rushed. I had fun doing Tsukiyama! Hopefully, he was creepy. I hope that the characters weren't to OOC. I think Yoshimura was OOC. I think that the pacin was bad too. I am working on improving my writing style**

 **Did anyone notice that I refer to Ken as 'Kaneki' in some parts, but in some parts i referred to him as 'Ken". Did you? Did you!? Did you?!( I know. No one cares) Wherever Touka, Yoshimura, and Shuu are taking about Ken, i called Ken as 'Kaneki', since they all call him by his last name, but in that one part where i called him Ken was when Ken's POV was being narrated, surely he wouldn't think of himself as 'Kaneki', he would think of himself as 'Ken'. This is useless detail though.**

 **I hope you had fun! Please look forward to the next chapter!**

 **Thank you for reading and following this story.**


	4. Chapter 4

Hinami was feeling many emotions which were all jumbled up together.

Guilt, sadness, frustration, anger, desperation, loneliness and the one that dominated all; confusion.

She was frustrated that she was oblivious to everything. When she saw her 'Onii-chan', he didn't look like her onii-chan at all. His hair was so white, it looked pretty in way, but, that white, on his hair looked ugly. It wasn't supposed to be there, his hair was supposed to be pitch black, like the night.

It was pretty obvious everyone was trying to hide something from her. It had something to do with the reason why onii-chan's in his current state. She wanted to ask someone, but was too scared to do so. Maybe it was something which she was better off not knowing. What if the truth was something she couldn't face?

She wished she could know. She wished she could just read everyone's emotions, like she did with books. Books were open to everyone and easily expressed themselves. They had nothing to hold back.

If people's emotions were books, then they must be on shelves, neatly kept in order according to the genre. She needed to reach the highest shelf to attain the knowledge of everyone's feelings. But, she won't be able to read it, or that's what she believes.

She wouldn't be able to even look at the first page. The first chapter, the first words, the first sentence will destroy her, because books were something with which you can empathize. If the truth is something everyone hides from her, then, empathizing with everything is not good for her, and yet, she wants to read it. She wants to read it so bad.

Hinami heard the sound of the door to the house opening.

'Onee- chan's home!'

Footsteps were heard and she immediately went to see Touka. Touka was standing in front of the door, removing her shoes.

"Welcome home!" said Hinami.

"I'm back" said Touka. She kept her shoes in the shoe rack and headed towards Hinami.

"How was your day?" asked Touka

"It was fine"

"Did you read any new books?"

"Onii- chan didn't give me any recently so, i re-read the old books" said Hinami.

Touka went to her own room to change, leaving Hinami alone.

Loneliness was something Hinami had gotten used to. But, the fact that both Touka and Kaneki were leaving was pretty hard to take in.

She couldn't ask her onii- chan to teach her the meaning of words anymore. She couldn't talk to her onee- chan again about things that never really mattered.

She wouldn't be able to say 'Welcome home' again.

Hinami will not cry this time around though. She will be brave for Touka and Kaneki so that they won't worry about her. She needed to get some burden off their shoulders.

Touka came out of her room and went to the living room and switched on the TV. Touka never really watched any of the shows, she would just switch to some random channel. She did so for the sound. Touka did not like the silence.

Hinami went and sat next to Touka.

"Onee chan?"

"Yes Hinami?"

"When are you leaving?"

Touka was silent, she seemed to have frozen on that spot. Hinami wondered why she was so shocked.

"Onee- chan?"

"Hinami...I'm sorry" said Touka looking down at he carpet lying on the floor. Touka's hair fell and covered her face. Hinami couldn't see what face she made. It was just another thing hidden from her.

"Why?" asked Hinami.

"Because I'm leaving you alone"

Hinami stared. This was her chance to reduce Touka's burdens.

"It's fine onee- chan. I have Nishiki nii chan, Kimi nee chan, Irimi san, Manager ojii- chan and Koma san too! I can't depend on you forever"

"Is it really all right?" asked Touka, turning to face Hinami. Her 'onee- chan' was shocked and concerned at her response.

Hinami smiled as bright as she could at Touka to reassure her.

"I will be fine. I like Touka onee- chan and Kaneki onii- chan better together anyways" said Hinami.

"Thank you... Sorry, Hinami" said Touka as she lifted her legs up to her chest. She looked so vulnerable. She buried her face into her hands. Hinami had never seen Touka like that, even when she was hurt an bleeding, she hadn't looked so fragile. Hinami went to Touka and hugged her.

It was a sloppy hug. She couldn't encircle her in her small arms

"When are you leaving onee- chan?"

"Soon, but I don't know when. I need to ask Kaneki"

"We will do that after a while okay!" said Hinami

"Okay" said Touka.

Hinami held a thumbs up to Touka.

"It's all right! Don't be so down, and let's turn that frown upside down!" said Hinami.

Touka laughed, she tried not to, but what Hinami had said sounded so stupid. Touka wondered if she could be this happy.

Touka got up and switched of the TV.

"How about we got to Anteiku now?"

"Okay. I'll get dressed up" said Hinami as she ran to her room.

"Don't forget the mask!" said Touka.

"I won't!".

Touka entered her room. She was feeling miserable. When she had told Kaneki that she will be coming with him, the thought of leaving Hinami alone did not cross her mind at all. She wanted to bash her head into a wall. Hinami was so important, but she didn't even regard her feelings!

Hinami had finally gotten over her parents death, but, her and Kaneki leaving without explanations would just re-open old wounds. Hinami loved Kaneki, he helped her so much. Kaneki did a much better job with taking care of Hinami than herself. Taking Kaneki away from Hinami would damage her, but, Hinami pretended to be fine, and Touka knew she was trying to make her feel better.

Her smile, it wasn't as bright.

* * *

Ken was bored. He was in the tunnels where he used to train with Yomo and Touka. He was waiting for Yomo, but, it had been hours and there was no sight of Yomo. He could have stayed in the cafe, but, the manager had told him not to.

He had his bag with him. He took out his book and began re- reading 'Hanged man MacGuffin', which was currently the only book he had. He remembered lending Hinami a few books. He was tempted to ask her to give it back but, he would not do that since she loved those books just as much as he did.

He sat down by the wall and opened the first page. There were folds at the corners in a lot of pages.

When he had bought the book, he didn't have bookmarks, and he mostly never needed any since he could finish reading a book in a day. After getting into university, something like that was impossible and he began folding the pages to remember which part he was reading.

He wished he hadn't done that. The book seemed weathered down and the pages were crumpled. He didn't like it.

As he began reading the book, the words pulled him in slowly and immersed him in a world in which he doesn't wish to be in. This story was tragic.

He had seen many people reading dystopian world stories which were getting popular these days. The people who read the book always say, 'I wish i could go there!'. Ken wondered what kind of wonderful book it was which could make someone wish that.

He went to a library and read the book. He completed two chapters, but, the writing style and the story could not draw him in. It was shallow and unoriginal. The words simply dictated the events going on, it didn't care about the characters feelings.

Some lines did talk about the main character's goals and current emotions, but, they had no depth. He could not empathize with the main lead. It was a failure of a book. He pondered, why anyone would like that book in the first place. The words begged for attention and demanded sympathy. It was pathetic

The story forced him to think inside a closed box. He was not free to interpret things his own way. The book suffocated him.

Takatsuki Sen, Kafka, Dante, they did not force him to do believe in something, they let him believe in whatever he wanted to. The most mystical things about these books was that, he could read the books a million times and still not know the story fully well. He would have missed a little detail, or read something wrong, but re- reading it, he realizes it's something else entirely.

The book had millions of different atmospheres and themes each time he read it because, the books he read resonated with his soul. The writers don't beg for attention when writing books, they would give the reader choices and give them a whole new perspective of the world.

He was four chapters in when he heard footsteps. He closed the book and looked up to see who it was. Touka and Hinami were walking towards him. Hinami was wearing a black wig, sunglasses and a huge hat, like she always did when going out. Touka looked normal.

"Hi onii chan!" said Hinami as she sat next to him on the floor. Ken greeted her and turned to look at Touka.

She looked at him indifferently. Ken waved at her and Touka responded with a simple "Yo".

"How was your day?" asked Ken to Hinami.

"It was fine. I was reading the book you gave me. It was easier to read. I've been improving a lot." said Hinami.

"That's good to hear. Did you hear of any new book releases? I heard Takatsuki is writing another novel"

"No. That was just a rumor. They even had a fake summary put up on some site. But it didn't sound like a story she would write"

"Any other books which you read other than the ones I gave you?"

"No. I didn't have anyone to recommend me books so no."

Touka was staring at them, confused and irritated. It was expected that these two would start ranting about some book. It's like the two had forgotten her existence, and they could have, she would not be surprised .

She didn't want to ruin their happiness, but, she had to ask what Kaneki was going to do to accomplish his mission. He also mentioned he wanted to get out of 20th ward, she took that with a grain of salt.

"*ahem*". Touka pretended to clear her throat to get their attention.

"Yes Touka chan?"

"Wrong time to ask but, when are we...leaving?" asked Touka.

" Tomorrow or the day after. I asked Tsukiyama san to search for a place to live"

"Him?"

"We can't complain" said Ken. He knew Touka never really liked Tsukiyama and after the incident at the church, needless to say, she hated him more than ever. He tried to convince her to believe that their predicament was not all that bad.

"He is our only choice. Tsukiyama san is rich and has connections so, I had to. He is all we have got." continued Ken.

Touka wanted to say, 'What about Uta?Ask him' but, Uta had info, not money. She was always suspicious of the ways Uta got information. She had never seen him leave the mask shop.

Touka looked at him and decided it was pointless to be picky at this point.

"Fine. Where are you going to stay for the next day or two then?" asked Touka.

"At Yomo san's"

"Yomo san? He allowed?"

"I have to ask him. The manager said it would be fine though"

"Oh"

The conversation ended there and neither had anything to say. They were just staring at each other for a while.

'What am I supposed to say now? I want to ask about university and Nagachika and all that but it's too soon.'

Touka then remembered the polythene bag she had in her hands. She had no clue how she forgot to mention something that important.

Touka dug into the bag and took out the hair spray can which she had bought and tossed it to him. It hit Kaneki's face. Kaneki fumbled and he finally got the thing in his hands.

"For you" said Touka.

Kaneki read the things name. "Hair color spray? Why?" asked Kaneki.

Touka pointed at his hair.

"You plan to walk in public looking like that?" asked Touka.

"Oh...but i don't need it"

"Why?"

Kaneki got up.

"Hinami chan. Do you want to read this book?" asked Kaneki giving her the book.

Hinami nodded and Kaneki started walking somewhere. Touka followed. They walked until they reached a good distnace away from Hinami.

Kaneki looked at her, his happy facade almost gone.

"I don't think i need people recognizing me outside"

"Why?"

"People think that i went missing and still do. I can't meet anyone without explaining anything. This is kind of my last day here as a normal person" said Kaneki as if it was something obvious. He showed no hints of hurt, he just came straight out with it.

"You didn't tell anyone? Not even Nagachika? You could have made something up. Don't you want to see him?" asked Touka. She had told this so fast, the words were mixed up in her head, she wondered how it all came out right.

Kaneki looked at her. He made the same face when they rescued him. Sad, broken and fragile. If he kept showing her the same face over and over again, she would eventually break.

"I don't think I would be able to lie to him. He would see right through me" said Kaneki. His voice low and almost inaudible.

'*I don't think I would be able to lie to him*?' Thought Touka, replaying the words in her head.

Touka knew that was not the case. Nagachika might see through him, but, Kaneki would also start talking and would probably reveal everything.

She had seen them together many times. Whenever they were together, both of them seemed like two normal college students, just enjoying life like there were no problems in this world.

When they were together, they were not human and ghoul, they were just...friends.

She could lie so easily to Yoriko, but he hesitated at the thought of seeing Nagachika.

Her friendship seemed so cheap.

"But, if you fight investigators with that white hair, and if they see you in public, it would be easy to spot you. Not many people go around dying their hair white" said Touka.

"You are right" said Kaneki.

"And besides, I just don't plain like it. It hurts my eyes. I'll go blind if I look at you like that for too long" said Touka, trying to make him smile and to comfort herself too. She was not scared, but, she was worried for him. She had no clue what to do with him.

Touka started walking to where Hinami was supposed to be. Hinami was reading Kaneki's book. She looked up and smiled at them and continued reading. Kaneki sat next to her to assist her if she needed help and read along with her. Touka took a seat next to them.

She was looking at the scene in front of her. It was like nothing had changed. Maybe, the two would read that book forever. Time would stand still and they would have nothing to worry about. No doves, no hunger and no pain.

Hinami would have infinite doubts and Kaneki would have infinite patience and explain everything. He would tell her fascinating stories, and Touka too would listen intently.

She would just sit there, never disturbing them, just admiring the beauty and calmness of the whole scene.

She wanted to remain there, watching these two precious people untouched by time, like holy beings whom no one would interfere with. Something to admire, not intervene.

She wasn't bored. She just was trying to capture every detail in her mind. Maybe, when she would arrive at the doors of hell, she would fondly remember this and smile.

She was collecting happy memories and putting it in a basket and was searching for more such sweet memories which would belong to her alone. No one else would see it except for her.

She wanted to be happy, like every other human being or ghoul on this planet. That's what everyone strives for. Maybe, Kaneki's ultimate goal is the same. Is that why he wants to protect everyone?

He is selfish, just like her.

 **Yaay! I had an alternate ending for this but i went completely off- track and made it happy! i don't want happiness! Though i deleted it now, maybe i would upload it as a side story. I don't know.**

 **In this chapter , i let out all my anger against trash like twilight, and all those other vampire- related stereotypical books and against all those copy- and - paste books which not only has bad writing, but also bad stories(but i have no right to criticize anyone since i am not a good writer myself). Releasing all my evil aura! Please bear with me.**

 **Anyways. I hope you liked this chapter and hopefully there were less mistakes.**

 **Thank you for reading, reviewing and following!**

 **Delta Marauder : Ahhhhh! XD Thank you for reading this. And yes i do know what you mean. I also know the pain of being half blind. Look forward to the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

Touka had packed and was ready to go.

Her mask, a few pair of clothes and her Mp3 players was all she needed. She would have taken pictures which she had took with Yoriko and Anteiku staff but, if something were to happen and if the CCG found her and the others somehow and saw the pictures, they would track all of the Anteiku members down and would start suspecting Yoriko too. She didn't want Yoriko to remember her as a ghoul.

She was feeling paranoid.

For everything she did the past two days, she wondered if she left some tracks which the doves can follow. Every thing she took, everything she did was calculated over and over again in her head. She created scenarios, imagined something happening, and she had to admit most were far- fetched but still possible. She didn't want to take the danger of not considering some of her wild thoughts.

She had burned anything too personal. Her existence was slowly being erased by herself. The only thing which she had which she could hold onto was a ring.

It was a wedding ring. It was painfully plain and had nothing flashy about it. But it's not the beauty of the ring that mattered, it was the emotions behind it. Her mom accepted it and probably wore it proudly. She wished she had known her mother better, she knows next to nothing about her.

She had to keep that ring safely somewhere. Leaving it in a drawer wherever she lived would be a bad idea since they might be moving a lot, so it had to be on her. She could definitely not wear it on her hand, so the next obvious solution was a chain.

She scrambled through her cupboard drawers to search for a chain. She found one fairly easily.

Touka removed the pendant that came with the chain and replaced it with the ring. She wore it around her neck, hoping the chain wouldn't come off during a fight. It felt cold against her skin. The chain had made no difference to her appearance. It just hung there, without doing anything. It camouflaged with her usual look.

Touka put in all the belongings which she hadn't thrown out yet in a bag and kept it on her bed. Yomo and Nishiki would come and dispose everything off. She slung the bag which she would taking on her back.

The last day at Anteiku was anti-climatic. It was pretty boring actually, it was just her, Kaneki, Banjou and his friends and Tsukiyama, getting on a van and leaving at three in the morning when the city felt like it was dead.

She got out of the room and headed downstairs. Hinami was to stay with Irimi since, well, she was the only good option they had. Yomo and Uta would scare Hinami to death, The manager was busy taking care of Anteiku. Koma was...well... Koma was Koma, and Nishiki would probably make some stupid mistake and Hinami will be in trouble and he had his girlfriend too, so, Nishiki was a big no. Irimi was normal.

She had told her goodbyes to Hinami the day before. They had spend the whole night talking about whatever Hinami liked and the rest of the time was spent watching movies in Anteiku. Hinami had fallen asleep on the couch and Touka carried her to Irimi who was downstairs.

Hinami had woken up and said a sleepy 'goodbye', and Touka replied with "See you soon...goodnight". In the spur of the moment, Touka kissed Hinami on her forehead and went home.

It was so simple. No tears, no drama.

The walk to her home was slow and silent. Hinami would keep talking and keep her entertained, the distance seemed so small when they were together.

But, this time, it felt like the road just kept going on, the turns just kept coming and her legs just took her to wherever her destination was. Touka didn't bother to look where she was going. She didn't get lost though, she made it.

She knocked on the door and waited for Hinami to open the door, but, she never would, she wasn't there anymore. Touka took out the keys in her pocket and unlocked the door.

This situation was so weird, it's like the time and the world didn't know how to cope up with the change and was just confused as to what to do next, just like her;Confused and unstable.

She went to her couch and stared at the TV. It was like everything that happened with Hinami was just a nice dream, and that this was reality.

For some reason, Touka was expecting something more to happen.

* * *

At Anteiku, everyone had gathered, drinking coffee. All of them were dead tired and Banjou had begun to sleep, only to be slapped by Jiiro whenever he did so. They were waiting for Touka. She was a good half-hour late.

Kaneki held a book in his hand, but, had read the same line about thirty times already. Once he did realize that he was reading the same thing over and over again, he continued to the next sentence, but he forgot what the story was about, and so, the cycle continued.

The manager, Uta, Yomo and Tsukiyama were perfectly fine. The rest were too sleepy notice that.

Nishiki hadn't come because he had exams that day and he couldn't attend exams without a good night's sleep. He did insist on coming, but the manager forced him out of it. Nishiki had told his goodbyes' to Kaneki, Touka, Banjou and group and he told a "Screw you!" to Tsukiyama and went home.

At around three- thirty, the doors to Anteiku opened with the chime of the bell which hung on the door.

"Look who decide to show up!" said Uta.

"Shut up" said Touka.

Kaneki looked up from his book at Touka.

"Touka chan...don't you think that it's a little...you know late"  
"Nothing happened" replied Touka.

"But still...". Kaneki was about to say something, but decided to do otherwise since neither he, nor Touka were in a mood to discuss anything.

" _Good morning_ Kirishima san!" said Tsukiyama as he got up and walked towards Touka, trying to take her hand to place a kiss, but, Touka kicked him into his table.

"Cold like a glacier as always" said Tsukiyama as he got up and dusted off his suit.

"Now that we have all gathered, shall we get moving?" asked Tsukiyama to everyone present. Everyone got up, Yomo and the manager got out of the counter and all of them headed to the back of Anteiku.

A van was parked outside, which Touka assumed was their ride to wherever they were going to stay.

The manager looked at everyone.

"Take care of yourselves" said the manager.

"We will" said Touka with a small smile. Yomo patted Touka and Kaneki on the back. That was probably his way of saying goodbye.

"If you need masks or any kind of help, feel free to come to me okay" said Uta.

They all got inside the van, which was surprisingly large and spacious. The driver of this van was a woman with short, black hair that reached her neck. She looked pretty serious and scary. Tsukiyama got in and sat in the front next to the driver.

Touka was sitting by the window. She lowered the window and waved goodbye to everyone and they were on their way. It felt like they were all going on a picnic.

This is what a child would do when he or she goes on a trip or an outing with friends. The kid would roll down the window and wave a goodbye with his or her hand sticking out the window and would continue to do so until the people become smaller than ants. It was stupid and hopeful, as if the kid was saying 'i will be back for sure!'. Touka couldn't promise that she would come back. She had gotten pretty rusty, if she wants to live, she would need to train twice as hard as she did before.

"This is Matsumae, she is a trustworthy and good friend of mine." said Tsukiyama pointing at the lady behind the steering wheel.

"I'm merely your servant Master Shuu"

"Oh stop it Matsumae, outside the mansion, we are not master and servant, we are friends"

"As you wish Master Shuu".

Touka was sitting next to one of Banjou's friends. She still has no clue as to what their names were. Banjou, Kaneki and another one of Banjou's friend was sitting in the back seat and Touka and the other two friends of Banjou in the middle.

Touka was staring outside the window, watching the buildings run by. She saw a few homes where the lights were switched on, and there were a considerate number of cars on the roads, She thought it would be just them and the lonely city, but, there were people outside. What situations were they going through to wake up this early? Were they ghouls? Humans? Where they in the exact same situation as her, or something completely different?

She wasn't the only one doing something different. There were so many people, doing things more dangerous and stupider than her. She was conceited to think she was the only one. She made up a really small piece in the greater scheme, no one would care about what she had done or what she would do, well, except for the CCG.

Touka, suddenly felt a gentle tap on her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned and found that it was the girl member of the Banjou group. She had short, blonde hair and looked like any average girl. No one would suspect her of being a ghoul.

"My name is Jiiro, nice to meet you" said 'Jiiro', as she held out her hand to Touka. Touka was a bit startled, but nonetheless, told her name.

" Kirishima, Touka Kirishima" said Touka as she extended her hand for a handshake. She thought that would be the end of it but, Jiiro thought otherwise.

"You are Rabbit right?"

"Yes"

"I heard you even go to school"

"Actually,' went' to school"

"oh yeah, yeah...that's right. Sorry" said Jiiro. The way she said that, it sounded like she truly was regretting the former question. Well too late for that.

"Its fine" replied Touka.

"So how was it?"

"What?"

"School?"

No! She didn't want to talk about it. She didn't ever want to talk about that! Not anymore anyways. She didn't want to talk about something which she regrets, it was like she was pointing at her mistakes, and something inside was haunting her saying, "you were wrong" "go back", it would say.

This girl managed to piss her off so fast. She might have broken Nishiki or Tsukiyama's record. Maybe she was cranky due to not sleeping, or this 'Jiiro' truly was annoying. She didn't know.

"It was fine" replied Touka.

"What was the class strength?"

"42"

"I heard there were 6 classes. "

"Yes"  
"How do you get to school?"

"I walk"  
"How are the teachers?"

"Fine"  
"Do you ever get bored? I heard kids talking about how boring this or that class is. It sounds fun, do you think it's fun"

"It's fine"

"How are your class representatives, and the cultural festival? They must be awesome! Working together as a class to accomplish a task, teamwork and making new friends sounds so good!"

"It's fine"

Jiiro kept ranting on about the knowledge she attained about high school life from magazines, observing students and reading manga. Touka did not listen and just replied with 'fine' and yeah'. Touka made sure to make it look obvious that she did not care, but, Jiiro just didn't take the hint.

She was stuck with Jiiro. No one seemed to be in the condition to help her since all of them were sleeping. Touka had no clue how they could sleep with Jiiro talking so loudly.

"Jiiro" said Touka

"Yeah?"

"Stop. Talk later. Everyone's tired." said Touka as she pretended to got to sleep.

* * *

Amon hadn't been able to find sleep for the past few days. He closed his eyes and waited, but his eyes never felt heavy.

He remembered that day like yesterday.

 _"Don't make me a killer!"_

Eye patch...

His tears, his words and that mask, they followed his thoughts, constantly insulting him for touching a quinqe, or even when walking past the entrance of the CCG headquarter's. For a moment, he considered Eye patch's words; what if it really was both of them messing up this world, or maybe the world itself is wrong and not just a singular species messing up everything.

He now walked towards his destination, his suit was neatly ironed with no creases, his hair; not a single strand out of place, and his eyes had dark circles which he believed, would now be a permanent part of his look.

He walked towards the grave of the man he looked up to and admired; Mado Kureo. The grave was lonely compared to many others. Only one bouquet would lay there.

"Progress report, 'binge eater is missing, and the 'gourmet' is still alive. My investigation target 'Rabbit' bears a relation to 'Eye patch'...and, as of today, I became a top class investigator-"

"Hey!"

Amon turned to see a woman with a bouquet in her hand, her eyes narrowed, as if looking down on him.

"What business do you have at my father's grave, Amon Koutarou?" continued she.

"Why do you-"

"I see, so they hadn't told you yet"

'What is she talking about?'

"I will be your subordinate starting next week, I'm Rank 2 Investigator Akira Mado. Nice to meet you, Amon-dono"

Akira Mado seemed to be the sort of person who despises beating around the bush. She got straight to the point, without asking a thing. Amon felt threatened when she made eye contact, a sort of rage seeping through her smile, the word '-dono' seemed to be filled with venom.

He had no clue that Kureo- san's daughter would be his subordinate. If she truly were angry, it would be no surprise since, he was the reason why her father died.

Would guiding her be a way of repenting for his mistakes? Was there any way to make-up for killing someone? He now had to live with the guilt, and he doesn't complain, he won't.

Sinners deserve punishment.

* * *

 **Yaay! My feelings are all over the place! I'm a mess!**

 **Hopefully this chapter was good. I edited this chapter very fast. I just know there will be mistakes. I introduced Amon and Akira! I will tell you guys now that Akira will be a tad bit OOC, but not too much, because she will be showing a LOT of emotions as compared to the Manga/Anime.**

 **This story will progress slowly...Very slowly. It's been 5 chapters and i haven't written anything significant. But don't worry, it's gonna be a roller-coaster after a while.**

 **Also, for all of you out there waiting for Hide , don't worry, I've got something awesome planned. Patience is key young ones.**

 **Hope you guys had fun reading this! Thank you for favorite-ing, following and reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 6: In place

**Yo! New chapter, yeah, I know, I don't have the side chapter. I will update it sometime in the future. Also, the words count is sky rocketing! This has 3000 words in it!**

 **Sorry about the long winded chapters. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

The 6th ward was currently their home.

Ken was in his make-shift training room with Touka. He was reading a book, while Touka was practicing one of the moves he had just told her. The book had the basics of Karate and he had another book which only had self- defense techniques.

"Oi Kaneki!" said Touka.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think we can just watch videos or something. Do you have to read this? It's taking too long. And it's useless for you to just sit there and read. Do something."

Touka was acting like a child. Whenever it comes to fighting, she was way too eager, she was itching for knowledge and new techniques, and she grasped everything surprisingly fast. It was like she was made to fight.

Ken closed his book. She was right, sitting and just reading won't help too much.

"Okay then, let's spar. No Kagune. We should fight like humans, just hand to hand combat. Let's try to use everything we learned" said Ken as he stood opposite to her a good distance away.

"We only learned how to freaking punch the right way or something, what difference does it make?"

"It has to make some difference, that's why they emphasized on it"  
"Whatever. Let's start"

Touka got herself into a stance, and so did Ken.

'Bad at close range combat, completely on offense. I have to get close to her first and keep her there. I have to make the first move'

Ken ran to her and attempted at a punch, Touka ducked and tried to move away, Ken tried a kick , she got her hand to her left and blocked it in time and attacked him with a double punch and a kick, she hit him.

Ken didn't give up. He got back up immediately and tried to hit her neck. Touka got down and tried to trip him with her leg. He jumped back and tried a back-kick, he hit her. She went back a bit and tried to go at him at full speed.

She was aiming all her punches to his chest, that would be a good way to kill without using a kagune.

As much as Ken hated to admit it, he liked this. Fighting was fun and he liked training with her. She made a good sparring partner, and he was proud of himself for being able to stand up to her.

Touka had told him he relied too much on his Kagune and that without it, he would be useless. She was half- right. He could hold up against her for a while with hand- to- hand combat, but, not enough to protect himself. Touka, on the other hand knew all the techniques, but her Kagune was weak.

They were perfect as a team, they made up for each other's weaknesses.

They had planned on taking down a small but influential gang from Aogiri who were supplying humans for the auctions as a way of making cash. Their first mission was to destroy all such groups.

Tsukiyama had told they would be fine, but training was necessary.

He was dodging most of her attacks, and he finally found an opening and he punched her at her sides, but Touka caught his hand. This situation was very familiar.

Back in Anteiku, she held his punch like this. Touka did it so easily, like she was trying to swat a fly, and she fractured his did that to 'motivate' him.

He looked up at her now ,slowly. She was smiling. Her grip was tightening, more, and more and more andmoreandmore ANDMORE!

 _'Weakling...Choose, One or the other, pain, crackfinger why doeshedot hat!? centipede crawlinginmy ea r sthousandmi- nusseven 993986971-rip your fingers apart~~~ Choose!choosechoosechoose'_

 _'Kaneki- kun?_

 _'Stop!'_

 _'You are_

"m-mom..."

 _"-_ Ka" _such a_

 _"-_ ne-" _nice kid_

-ki! _"'_

 _"-_ neki!"

 _'STOP!'_

"Kaneki?"

"Watashi-" _wa sentaku shimasu!(I will choose!)_

"Oi!"

He was sweating, he could hear his heart beat against his chest like it was trying to escape. Like a raging beast, angry and tired of staying in a cage for too long.

Touka was still holding his hand, but her grip loosened. Her free hand was on his shoulder. He stood up straight. Touka looked concerned, had he done something?

"Touka- chan?"

"What happened? Are you okay?" asked Touka

"Y-yes, i'm fine, just..."

"What? Spit it out"

"Nothing. Let's continue"

'He is definitely not fine' thought Touka.

"No. Let's stop for now. We're taking a break. I'll go get some coffee"

"But-"

"Shut up. We're talking about this later. Wait for me"

* * *

Touka headed into the kitchen and got the coffee beans out of the cupboard.

She looked at the top of her hand. Blood.

Kaneki squeezed her hand enough to puncture the skin, but only slightly. It patched itself up. Only the blood and the slight sting of the pain remained. The blood was not enough to stay on his hand. Good thing she didn't tell him, he looked so scared, telling that he scratched her would make him feel guilty, though this wasn't such a big deal.

She was very suspicious of his current state though, and she was not leaving this alone.

Touka washed her hands and began making that coffee.

"Yo Touka - chan!" said Jiiro as she entered the kitchen.

"Yo"

"Ended the training session?"

"No. Just a coffee break"

"Please make some for me too! Please! I love your coffee!"

"Oi Jiiro. You just had some fifteen minutes ago." said Ichimi. His spiky black hair was now tamed since he finally got his hands on a comb. Ichimi was like the 'mom' of the group.

"But it was not Touka's coffee. It was not high- class coffee"

"Shut up. We can't just keep buying coffee beans for you." said Ichimi

"You should seriously stop with the coffee obsession. If you want to talk about it, go talk with Shittyama. He's always searching for someone to rant to" said Touka. She was almost done with her coffee.

"But Tsukiyama- san is creepy" said Jiiro.

"Yeah, he acts weird around her. Just keep an eye on him, both of you should." said Ichimi.

"Yeah, yeah." said Jiiro.

"She doesn't want to do anything about it because he was the first to give her flowers and do something remotely romantic for her. She's just getting desperate" came Sante's muffled voice from outside. He had long hair which he sported as a pony-tail. He was playing video games with Banjou.

"Look who's talking" said Jiiro.

Touka took the two coffee mugs and exited the kitchen. She headed to the training room. Hopefully, Kaneki was fine.

.

.

.

Who was she kidding?

He had problems, big ones. She was definitely not the type who can handle his situation. She would get annoyed if he acts stupid and she would punch him, making his condition worse.

She sighed. He needed to talk with people about his problems, if not her, then Banjou, since he seemed to trust him. Heck! If he wanted to, he can go and talk with Tsukiyama if it means it would help.

His best remedy was probably that Nagachika, or some human from his past. Maybe his mom or dad.

.

.

Now that she thought about it, who are his parents exactly? He mentioned his mom once when they were making a bento for Yoriko, but that's it. His mom must be worried. Her son just went missing. Was she even alive? Are either of his parents alive?

He called himself 'Watashi' a while ago and said 'mom', and... that feral smile...Why?

She shuddered. Why was she scared of her friend? No...he was replaced by something completely different.

He looked terrified, but somehow, his mouth twitched and he forced a smile. His teeth and jaws were showing. His mask must have molded into his skin, did he really like that mask?

His smile was definitely not happy, none of his smiles were happy anymore. This smile looked disgusting and scary, like an insane, starving animal born from malice and suppressed darkness, she wondered how he could do it.

So many questions to ask, so many he won't answer to. Kaneki Ken was shrouded in mystery.

Touka headed into the room, he was holding a book in his hand, not martial arts, but those story books which he liked.

Touka sat down next to him and gave him the mug.

"What happened?" asked she.

He closed the book and kept it by his side.

"I don't know" said Kaneki. He seemed reluctant to answer any of her question. She saw that coming.

"Well, since you are not going to say anything, how about we just talk about nonsense."

"What?"

"Talk about yourself, I know shit about you. You seem to have problems."  
"First of all, you do know things about me, and second, I don't have any problems" said Kaneki.

"Sure you don't..." said Touka and continued.

"I searched up why you had white hair. You can't keep hiding forever. If you don't tell, I can ask others who will."

She was threatening him and hopefully, he got scared and would probably spill the beans.

'I'm asking for too much'

Why did he have to beat around the bush so much?

Kaneki looked up so fast, he could've broken his neck. He looked alarmed. His eyes lost it's shine.

'Bingo! Now it's confirmed where his troubles started. That's a step forward' thought Touka.

"I'm just not ready to say anything I guess." said Kaneki as he looked at his fingers, guilt on his face and a small smile that did not convey it's message.

'This conversation is going nowhere! This whole thing was supposed to make him feel better, but of course it won't be that simple'

"You don't need to tell me. That's not what I'm asking, but..." She had to say it, even if it won't help him. She continued

"...The thing is...Stop burdening yourself. What are we here for? Give us some work too" said Touka.

Kaneki kept looking down, lost in some daze.

"Yeah" he replied.

"How about we start again?"

"Okay"

* * *

Ken was back again, in that ocean of blinding red flowers which looked like blood,and, who knows, maybe when he touches it, the color might dye his hands.

In the middle, sitting amidst this was the wrong reflection of him. It had black hair, and sat down. It refused to look up. Ken walked towards it.

"You are worrying everyone" said this reflection; a single white flower in his hands.

"It's fine now" replied Ken

"It's not"

"Stop talking"

"I won't"

"You are unnecessary" said Ken.

"Am I?"

Ken was silent.

"You can't get rid of who you are. It's kind of like someone's existence, it leaves a mark. It has to be there, somewhere. It must have caused at least the slightest difference in the way things work. You can't erase that."

"I can't erase you, but, I can keep you from causing changes"

"Stop trying to sound like you are a hero...You are ugly. You cannot throw some glitter over it and hope it disappears. You cannot get rid of me." said the reflection, it was mocking him. The reflection twirled the flower in his hand, it was so white. It was too pure to be in that place. It must be lonely.

"Why can't I? I am you, you don't exist unless I want you to" said Ken.

"Then why am I here?"

Ken had no answer. He was dumbstruck, he felt like a fool, trying to believe in something which he knew was a lie.

"See, you can't answer. You should stop dreaming, did Yamori really break you?" said the reflection, smiling. It stood up and walked towards him, trampling the red flowers in it's way.

"I am you, you are me. As long as you remain, I will" said this reflection.

"I don't need your weakness"

"It's not weakness"

"Whatever that doesn't help me protect is not needed"

"Then you will be nothing but a monster"said this reflection. It was calm and composed, like it was dead inside, but it's eyes were filled with life and a kind of innocence he wants back. It had everything he wants. It had everything everyone wants.

It had weakness.

'Being a monster isn't all that bad right Kaneki- kun~' echoed a smooth, silky voice which made him cringe.

"Don't listen to it. It's gone" said the reflection.

"I won't listen to either of you" said Ken.

.

.

.

.

"You still can't choose Ken"

* * *

Yoriko did not plan on this. It was more like an instinct which she couldn't refuse to ignore.

She was curious about the place which her friend always talked about. It supposedly served the best coffee on this planet.

Anteiku was a place which intrigued her.

It was a holiday and she was roaming around town going to different restaurants trying breads from different places. She met a few chefs and asked for suggestions and tips, which many were glad to give. So far she had gone to six restaurants, the pocket money she saved up and the money she begged and pleaded and got from her parents was almost over.

She wanted to spend the last of it on the coffee which Touka praised so much.

She pushed the door open and the bell jingled slightly. Most seats were full except for the ones at the counter were she could witness the making of the coffee first hand. It could be a good experience.

Only one person was sitting there.

Only the one's who come alone would probably sit there.

She went up to the counter and took a seat. A waitress with black hair and a small smile came up to her.

"Welcome to Anteiku. What would you like to order?" asked the waitress. Her voice was calm and comforting. It was not like in many places where the waiter or waitress just blatantly recited those words, not caring about the customer. This wasn't fake.

The food matters, but good service will make anything better.

"Black coffee please. The best you have got" said Yoriko. Yoriko was clueless when it came to coffee, she was only concentrating on pastries currently.

The waitress smiled taking her order down in her notepad.

"Is that all?" asked the waitress.

"Yes"

"Please wait for a while, I will be right back" said the waitress as she went to the kitchen and began making the coffee.

Yoriko looked around the place, it was lively. It had this elegant look to it, but, as she observed the customers and all the other waiters and waitresses, she noticed they didn't match the atmosphere, but somehow managed to fit in.

There was a boy sitting next to her, he seemed to be in high school or college. He had bleached hair, but, the roots of his original hair color was beginning to show. His clothes were very bright in color combination. He also seemed to be waiting for his order.

The waitress came with two cups of black coffee. She placed it in front of her and the boy.

"I hope you enjoy it" said the waitress as she headed back to her work. Yoriko took the cup in her hands. It was warm. This was probably the best temperature to drink it.

She stared at the brownish black liquid, steam was slowly coming up and warming up her face. Yoriko took the cup to her mouth.

She expected something marvelous, something sweet and slightly bitter, something like dark chocolate, but, she didn't taste that.

It was just bitter.

Too bad she had taken a huge gulp and now was slightly gagging.

'Why did you like this Touka- chan?! Maybe I shouldn't have bought this...Agh!What a waste of money, and I gagged! What if the waitress noticed? It would be like I'm insulting them!'

"You really don't like black coffee do you?" said the boy sitting next to her as he laughed.

'Embarrassing! God why? Seriously?!' thought Yoriko. A slight blush formed on her face. Her mouth twitched and formed a smile.

"Y-yeah" said Yoriko.

"Then why did you order it?" asked the boy.

"My friend loves this place, and she loves coffee. I just wanted to find what was so good about it" said Yoriko.

"Me too. It's kind of the exact same situation. My friend loves this place too!" said the boy.

"Do you like coffee?" asked Yoriko.

"Nah"

"Then why did you order?" asked Yoriko. The boy was holding the cup in his hand. He looked into it. He hadn't taken a single sip of it.

"I guess I just wanted to see what he found good about this, what he experienced. He is pretty much a mystery to me, though we've been friends for a while. This is the only connection I've got to him now" said the boy.

'Kind of like me'

"Well, we have a lot more in common than I thought" said Yoriko.

"You also have a stupid friend who likes keeping things to themself?"

"Yeah. But she supports me a lot. I wish I can repay her somehow"

"Me too, he might not see it, but he helps me a lot"said the boy.

"We are both in the same predicament I guess?"

"Yup." said the boy as he held the cup higher to toast, Yoriko did the cups hit and the coffee from both the cups threatened to spill. They laughed and drank it all in one go.

"Well, that was a bad idea." said Yoriko.

"Yeah we could have asked for sugar" said the boy.

Both of them took out the money required, payed and went out with a 'thank you' to the waitress.

"Come back again!" said the waitress. Yoriko closed the door.

"Well, it was nice meeting you...?"

"Yoriko. And you are..?"

"Hideyoshi, but everyone calls me Hide"

* * *

 **Yay! Hide! Are you guys happy? I love how Yoriko to Touka is like what Hide is to Kaneki. I just thought what it would be like if two best BFF's of the century met and I know this is not what will happen.**

 **Do any of you guys think Yoriko might know that Touka is a ghoul? I have a whole scenario prepared and stuff, but, would you guys like that? Comment your opinions to me,or inform me through whatever way.**

 **I always feel so nervous when writing chapters since I don't want it to be too stupid and predictable. I'm scared that the characters might be OOC. I really want to give you guys something very close to the manga but i know i can never reach the perfection of Ishida- sensei's.**

 **Also, for those who know Japanese, sorry about that nonsense. I used google translate. Japanese words have double meaning and stuff, so who knows, the translation might not even mean what i want to say.**

 **Next chapter is going to be interesting...Mwahahahaha! Also, the new chapter of :re was just...woooow!**

 **Anyways, hope you guys had fun and thank you, as always for commenting, favorite-ing and following this story! I hope i satisfied you guys.**

 **Also, i'm editing the former chapters, i almost had a heart attack with the amount of mistakes. I congratulate those brave souls who got past chapter 1 and continued till this chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7: First move

**6th Ward, Orca: A bar run by the subordinates of Shachi.**

"I heard some people moved into that old building. There were around five to seven people"

"Have they caused any trouble?"

"No, not yet. One of them was the Gourmet, He is known for being a picky eater and always hunts in every ward. If he doesn't like the meat, he will leave the corpse and get out of there and would start hunting for more. He doesn't eat, but he kills a lot. He is going to ruin this place.I heard he was in the 20th before."

"We will interfere only if they disturb the peace here, otherwise leave them be. Unnecessary conflicts are a waste of time and energy"

 **13th ward, White suits base, 11:20 PM**

 **Basement of a newly constructed building.**

 **Total floors: 15**

 **Total car park basements: 5**

 **White suits:**

"This time the list is so stupid! What is up with these idiots!"

"A kid whose birthday is on the day when Franklinia alatamaha bloomed, a woman who voiced a character in a main stream anime and an old man who is 72 years and a day old!

"Maybe we should just stop this. We could just get part- time jobs"

"Then we need fake ID's, papers and all that shit, It's gonna be messy and you need to pretend to be human."

"We should just steal. If we can kidnap humans, we can steal easily"

"Shut up. Stop complaining and get to work"

Touka was holding onto a pipe which was attached to the ceiling of the basement. There many other pipes like that.

The lights were out and she had an easy cover. From above, she could see around ten people, all wearing white suits, walking towards the exit.

They were their targets.

Kaneki and Tsukiyama were all in their postions. They were a bit farther away from her, all of them were spread out in different directions, waiting for the white suits to come.

She signalled the two the number 'ten' with her hand in sign language. It was pretty dark, but, their eyes had gotten used to it.

Kaneki signalled 'begin' to her. The ceilings was spacious enough to produce her kagune.

...

They were in the hall. Kaneki had got a simple plan laid out for them to follow.

"Touka- chan. I want you to hit them with your kagune from above. They will panic and me and Tsukiyama san will go down and kill as many as possible. Touka chan should catch the ones who escaped and kill them . They might go and inform the ones on the higher floors if we let them escape. Be as silent as possible, and don't let any of them scream" said Kaneki.

"What about the ghouls above? They'll know eventually" asked Banjou.

Banjou was scared, to say the least. He tried to prepare himself for whatever would be coming. He knew he couldn't do much, but, he had to try. He had to help, he had to move on.

He was tired of being weak. He couldn't be the strongest, but, just being strong is enough. He couldn't let Kaneki carry the burden of everything.

Banjou knew Kaneki was unstable, he will crack under the pressure of his mission. He understood the half- ghoul's hunger for power, he knew what being helpless felt like, but, he couldn't understand what made him take this decision.

He tries to understand, only to be met with a dead end every time.

'Don't be dead- weight! Get over it you idiot! You're gonna have to kill soon!'

"Well, there are seven of us here. I want Banjou san, Ichimi san, Jiiro chan and Sante san to search the building and find out how many ghouls are there in total and what floors they are in. I want all of you to carry your phones and message each other about the details. Don't forget to put your phones on silent and lower the brightness. "

"Kaneki. None of us have phones" said Touka.

"I asked Tsukiyama san to buy one for all of us" said Kaneki and continued.

"There are fifteen floors, Jiiro- san and Sante san should got to the twelfth floor, Banjou san to the eighth and Ichimi san to the fourth floor after you have sent us all the information. Touka chan will go to Sante and Jiiro and you three will exterminate everyone in the closest floors, I'll join Ichimi- san and Tsukiyama- san will join Banjou san"

"We also need to know when and where the auction will take place. We will not kill a few and bring them back here." said Tsukiyama.

"Right. When do the organizers give the auction material details?"

"About four weeks before the auction" said Tsukiyama.

"We will try to exterminate everyone in the auction only if the ghouls are all weaker than us. We need to check who will be the body guards. If they are too strong, then we won't be doing anything" said Kaneki.

"I can get those details the week before the auctions, I will go as a bidder and check who all are there and inform you. Big Madame is SS rated and she has S rated body guards. But she won't be coming unless the auctions are held by herself. This one isn't." said Tsukiyama.

"So we are set. Any questions"

Everyone was silent.

"Then I guess we are ready"

...

Touka thought it was too easy. Her Kagune protruded from her back and broke a few pipelines. The white suit weirdos looked up only to be met with pink shard to their eyes and into their brains.

One of them fell down, the rest were too distracted because of the pain.

She, Tsukiyama and Kaneki landed below. Kaneki took down three of them, Tsukiyama killed four and Touka killed the remaining three.

"Well, that was easy. I'm not even getting started" said Touka.

She felt good.

As sick as it sounds, she liked this. She used to despise her kagune and her black-red eyes which looked like an erupiting volcanoe with red hot lova.. Now they seem like a gift. She thought she would feel disgusted when her kagune would emerge and form her wretched wings, but, this time, she felt a strange satisfaction.

Maybe she relapsed into her old days.

Tsukiyama was trying to wipe off the blood from his suit, which was pointless.

Kaneki was staring at the bodies. Observing the blood gushing out of the dead ghouls and forming a clear puddle in front of his eyes. He stared at the blood, as if he was hypnotised by the color. Did he not get used to this?

The smell of blood began to slowly enter her nose. It was disgusting. It smelt like rotten fish and rusted iron and something else.

Touka felt the phone in the pocket of her shorts vibrate. She took it out and checked the message and read the messages.

'Okay, on 12th, 15th and 14th floors there are 12 of them, thirty six in total counting all them. I need to fight twelve' thought Touka.

Kaneki looked at her and Tsukiyama.

"Tsukiyama san go first and keep them all engaged, i go second, and Touka chan go last" said Kaneki.

"Got it" /" _Yes_ "

Tsukiyama ran up the stairs. Kaneki waited a while to make sure if everything was fine above. Touka had told him the noise had died down.

"Thanks Touka chan"

"Yeah yeah" said Touka. She pulled out her mask and put it on. Kaneki had his on already.

"Well, see you soon. Good luck" said Kaneki as he began going up the stairs.

"You too" said Touka.

She waited a good ten minutes before she began speeding up to the top. On her way up she heard screams and curses. None of them were the voices she knew so she assumed everything was going smoothly.

She reached her destination. Sante and Jiiro were in the room to the staircase. There were six on 15th, two on twelfth and four on 14th floor. They were currently on twelfth floor.

Touka heard the two ghouls who were on this floor. There were twenty rooms on this floor and the two were in the eighth.

Touka, Sante and Jiiro followed her out. Touka burst open the door to the eighth room

"Who are you?" said one of the ghouls

"Stop barging in kid, it doesn't make you look cool. Are ya new?!"

'Idiots' thought Touka. She didn't hesitate to attack. One was easy to kill. The other put up a fight. He was small and fast, but his kagune was a koukaku. Touka had the advantage.

The koukaku weilder tried to stab her with his kagune. He was dead slow and she dodged it easily. She drove her hand through his chest, starting from below the rib cage and then moving upward. It was easy kill.

Her hands felt warm and slippery. She had nothing to wipe it away on. It would take ages to get rid of the smell.

'Ah well, this is better, it's easier to kill if different bloods mix'

The second, the taller and slightly bulkier one began to stand up, only to get his neck crushed by Sante.

"Well, the training paid off I guess" said Sante.

"Your shoe's print is going to be all over the place" said Jiiro.

"It's fine, I can use any of their shoes and i'll throw this one away later" said Sante. He began to go to one of the corpses and remove their shoes . His foot was covered in blood. He put on the shoes and left his old oe's near the corpse.

"You did good Sante. Thanks" said Touka.

"I just stamped him" said Sante, scratching the back of his head. He was glad he could help.

'Next time would be better and flashier' thought Sante.

"We should get moving" said Jiiro.

"Yeah" said Touka. They headed to the staircases, Touka skipping five to seven steps to get up faster. Her right hand felt like it was throbbing, craving for more guts and flesh. Her kakugan was showing, she didn't bother hiding it anymore, this is where she could be her magnificent, ugly self and no one would judge her for being a savage.

The drops of blood dripped own, tickling her skin as they slid down. Her green shirt was now a strange bluish- red, her face, which was covered by the mask, somehow had drops of blood smeared on it, and she might have flesh stuck in her nails.

On the way up, Jiiro tugged at Touka's shirt. Touka turned around, about to ask her why she did that, but Jiiro covered her mouth with her hand.

Touka gestured 'why?' with her hands. Jiiro pointed up, and made signs with her hands to say that people were going to come down the stairs. Touka and Sante tried to listen to the sound of footsteps, four different footsteps were audible. The 'click' of the door opening was heard. Jiiro and Sante stood behind her. Touka knew these ghouls would have heard them and she was right.

All four rushed down. Two of them looked pretty normal, and the other two were bulky. They were lead by a ghoul who wore a checkered white and grey suit. This ghoul had his bikaku kagune out. The rest seemed calmer, confident they could take her down.

This situation was completely to her advantage, maybe she was really lucky today, or maybe these guys were idiots.

All four of them were close to each other since the place was cramped up, she could just jump up and split their heads apart with her hands and kagune.

The bikaku weilder jumped forwards, lunging at her. She pierced his stomach with her hand, and threw him over the railings and he fell. Even if he were a ghoul, he couldn't survive that fall.

The remaining three were held in the same place by Sante and Jiiro, and Touka proceeded to cut the three's heads in half. Sante and Jiiro made her work easier than normal, she felt good that they were with her.

The final floor, the fifteenth was the only one left. Their voices and the screams of the other ghouls must have echoed and the other six ghouls must have heard.

She was not exhausted since she didn't use her kagune much and every fight was easy and unfairly one- sided.

She ran up the stairs, and pushed down the handle to the door and was prepared for anything.

She saw a ghoul, wearing a stainless white suit. His blonde hair was ruffled and it was a mess. His kakugan was activated and his face shined because of wet tears, which kept falling.

He was sad. He was angry.

Surrounding him were two bulky ghouls wearing similar mask and another three, all in white and all of them had bleached blonde hair.

"Y-y-y-you! Why are you doing this!?" yelled the crying ghoul, his kagune molding into it's shape.

'...another easy kill...'

"Who is this idiot?" asked Touka.

"Is-i-i-i-is that-"

The ghoul jumped at her. Touka slid down and dodged him. Jiiro and Sante closed the door to the staircase and stayed behind the door.

"WHY WHYWHYWHWYWHY!? Why are you killing everyone!?" screamed the ghoul as he tried to stab Touka with his kagune. He lunged forward, tears still streaming down his face.

Jiiro could hear the ghoul's screams. She knew him. She looked at Sante.

"-Naki?"

Both of them won't ever forget the ghoul who looked up to Jason and revered him as god while others saw him as the devil's spawn.

No one will forget that senseless idiot.

 **Naki, the true protagonist of TG has finally come! I just love Naki, he has a special place in my heart. This chapter is huge!**

 **Delta Marauder: He didn't have any intentions of killing her. He was just angry and got reminded of the torture room which stressed him. Well, for now he doesn't plan on murdering anyone...key word; now... MWAHAHAHA! I love torturing Ken**

 **Thank you for reviewing for every chapter!**

 **xxxDreamingflowerxxx: Actually, i wrote this chapter weeks ago. After I read chapter 53 I was so happy it had something to do with the chapter i wrote! Total coincidence. I was so happy! But, now all my chapters will be influenced by re chapter 53.**

 **Hide doesn't like coffee(i think), one time, he tried buying a can of coffe from a vending machine and drank it and said it was bitter, it sounded like he didn't like it. That was when Yamori and Nico were first introduced, they were passing by Hide talking about something.**

 **I am not going to make Yoriko find out Touka is a ghoul, and this is probably the last time you guys will see Yoriko(maybe).**

 **Yup, i do know where Ore, watashi and boku are used. I purposefully made Ken call himself as 'watashi' instead of boku because when Ken went centipede, he kept saying boku, watashi and ore, he wasn't able to decide what to call himself because of Jason and Rize.**

 **Thank you for supporting me! I've read many fo your stories before you know! 'It starts with a question' and Tokyo ghoul root a cracks are bae! I was so hyped when i saw your review in my story.**


	8. Chapter 8: Thirty seven

Jiiro could feel her heart hammering against her chest and sweat dripped own her face. She could hear everything. Muffled screams and the sound of things breaking and falling apart.

Sante was not nervous. He was observant. He seemed to be in deep thought.

"Why is Naki here? This isn't something he needs to come for, and there are many other groups too, why is he here in particular? Doesn't he have to take care of other things?" asked Sante

"That's not the point! How did we not see him before?" questioned Jiiro, her voice was loud and she was not trying to hide her confusion.

" Maybe he was somewhere else, or maybe he just came here."

"But all of us counted, so how did we all miss one person?"

"I don't know. Someone inside this group is spreading information. Naki knew we were all hunting his subordinates. So it should be thirty seven people, not thirty six. One of them must be spreading info"

"Where is the thirty seventh then?" asked Jiiro.

"How about you stop looking at the ground and try admiring the sky once in a while?"

Jiiro and Sante looked up, only to see a blur of white come down and push them down the staircases.

They landed below with a thud. Sante scrambled up and looked at the man. Slender figure, slanted eyes, adorned in a white shirt, white pants, a black jacket and a clown mask.

* * *

Touka was having a tough time with this crying ghoul. He just kept screaming and screaming! It annoyed her, and she knew she would be deaf by the end of this.

His koukaku kagune was almost like a sword, but he used it as a shield too.

'He must be S- class or at least an A- class.'

Touka's ukaku kagune emerged. She flattened it down so it came to her hands. Her one wing shielded her side.

The ghoul extended his kagune to make it more flexible. He tried to cut off her leg. Touka kicked his face and slammed him into the walls with her kagune. Naki was thrown into a window, and he fell outside the building.

The ghoul's screams could be heard from above. The scream faded, and stopped abruptly.

'Finally! He shut up'

The screams were immediately replaced by scraping and crunching sounds. Touka rushed to the spot where the blonde ghoul fell from.

"N-n-n-no way"

The ghoul held onto the building, his kagune piercing the walls as he climbed up to the top. Touka fired at him, it had little effect on him. She needed to get rid of this ghoul.

"GAAAAAAAAGH! IT HURTS!" cried the ghoul.

She needed to do something.

"God you are annoying"

* * *

Jiiro and Sante were running down the stairs, trying to get away from this ghoul. Jiiro was sure she would have died, but, an entrance to the next floor caught Sante's eyes. He pulled Jiiro towards the door and entered, and did not hesitate to slam the door shut.

"This was such a bad idea!" said Jiiro.

"How!?"

"Idiot! We can't get out now!"

* * *

The crying ghoul jumped up, his kagune pointed forward, ready to run it through anyone's body. Touka spun as she ducked down, trying to form a shield with her kagune.

The ghoul was already healing, but, she can't give him time to heal.

'Okay...assess the situation.' thought Touka as she concentrated solely on dodging for a while, giving her time to think things through.

She observed him. He continuously did the same moves; punches and upper kicks. He always seems to use his left hand and arm for everything, rarely using the right and he seemed very dependent on his kagune.

The crying ghoul pulled up his kagune and swung down with full force, trying to cut her in half from her shoulder. Touka stepped sideways and the kagune hit the ground and formed huge cracks on the floor. The uplifted concrete almost trips her, but she steps behind him. Touka pushes him forward. The crying ghoul almost falls, but he lifts himself up after putting his hand on the ground, trying to hit Touka again with the previous move. He jumped up and swung forward.

Touka blocked his kagune with hers, completely stalling him. She could feel the weight of his kagune and the ghoul himself coming down on her.

Time seemed to slow down, and everything played out in slow motion. Touka saw his leg, he was still in middle of hitting her, his legs were off the ground.

She had to keep him still. She had to make sure he doesn't move. Touka straightened her free arm, trying to imitate a sword; swift, strong, and unfair.

She aimed her 'sword' at his leg and swung. She aimed her smaller wing at his leg next. Even if it was smaller, it was strong.

Touka slid behind the crying ghoul and he fell forward, face front. She felt something cold on her hair, like water. She saw a limb fall on the floor and she saw the former owner of the limb.

He screamed.

She headed towards him, her kagune still blazing. She was ready to kill him.

'That's the end fo-!'

.

.

.

Pain. It wasn't much, but, it hurt. The crying ghoul, was lying on the ground, he was facing her.

He smiled.

His kagune, pierced her enough to damage some organs. It was a last ditch effort from his part.

Touka shot him, but most of them missed. His two bulky subordinates carried him, and the remaining three followed. They headed out through the door. They were going to another floor, and all of them were alive .

Touka had her hands above her wound. She got back up. She had to go. It was her job to finish them off!

'I can't let Bakaneki and Shittiyama help me...Those two helping me!?'

She pushed herself off the ground and ran towards the exit door. She saw all six of them, they were slow since they were carrying the crying ghoul.

Touka jumped from the railing. She fell down, and made sure to catch the railing closest to those six.

She held on too early, but, it was close to them. She carried herself up. Her hands felt like they were burning, and she just knows she dislocated her shoulder. She climbed up.

Her wound was still bleeding, she could feel the blood trickling down her legs and it all being soaked up by her socks. It felt disgusting.

She ran down, and all them knew she was coming. The three in the back turned around. They should not have done that.

Three kicks, two upper cuts, a leg through one's stomach, a hand through the other's head and slice with her kagune. That's all it took to kill three people.

Touka knelt down. Her breathing was rapid and uneven. She looked at her stomach. Her shirt was torn, but, her wound was healing up, albeit slowly.

Her healing sucked.

Touka put her hand onto the wall for support and held herself up. The bulky two and the annoying, crying ghoul ran away.

'Three down, three to go'

* * *

Jiiro and Sante were in a pinch. The ghoul wearing the clown mask kicked the door upper half of his face was covered in a clown mask, but, his smile could definitely become a part of the mask.

"Was that kick any good? You know, I like kicking doors open. It makes me look cool. Do you think I looked cool back there?"

"You are talkative aren't you?" asked Jiiro.

"Yes yes, I've been called a chatter box by many.I really like getting to know more about people" answered the ghoul. He walked forward, as if he saw a friend, he cam with no hesitation or hurry.

Jiiro was completely on guard, and she was happy she was.

The clown ghoul tried to punch her. Jiiro ducked down and pulled Sante out of the way and dragged him towards the door to the staircases. They needed to go find help. Jiiro was ready to go up, but Sante pointed below. Touka was going down to another floor.

They followed her, or at least, tried to

"SANTE!" yelled Jiiro.

The clowns' punch almost made contact. Sante bent backwards and fell back.

"You guys like falling a lot don't you?" asked the Clown.

* * *

Touka was irritated. She searched, and searched for those three ghouls, but they seemed to have disappeared.

"WHERE THE F*** ARE THEY!?"

She saw a door, an entrance to another floor.

"They better be there" mumbled Touka as she burst open the door. She walked in, she held up her hands and balled them into a fist. She walked in, trying to feel and hear everything.

She heard nothing.

She walked in either ways. She looked around, and was about to punch the walls out of frustration of not finding those three, when, she heard something.

It sounded like something was being torn apart, or being crunched.

It sounded like autumn leaves being crushed under her feet.

Touka stopped her fist from making contact with the wall and walked towards the sounds.

The sound became louder, and as she turned a corner, she saw the source.

* * *

'Dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge. Don't let anything hit you!' thought Jiiro.

'Duck, bring your hand to your side, block it , bend back, bend forward, duck, dodge, dodge dodge!'

Both of them had come to an agreement to tire the clown ghoul and stall him until they find either Touka, Kaneki or Tsukiyama.

Jiiro heard someone cursing. A girl's voice.

"Tou- I mean, Rabbit's a floor below!" said Jiiro to Sante. The two ran forward. Jiiro guarded Sante's back and Sante ran forward, guiding her down.

They reached their destination. Sante pulled down the handle to the door hard enough for it break. They ran inside, searching for the blue-haired girl.

They saw Touka. Her back was facing them.

"Touka chan!"

Touka turned around. Jiiro and Sante ran towards her and stood beside her. The clown ghoul headed towards Touka.

Touka stood there, she didn't do anything and took the punch.

"Touka -chan!?"

Touka got back up, as if she was snapped out a daze. She crouched down, her kagune out. She jumped at the clown ghoul and pierced his stomach. The clown ghoul was thrown behind.

The clown was about to hit the ground, but was caught mid air by a rinkaku tentacle.

"Kaneki-san?" said Sante as he looked back. Kaneki threw down the clown.

Jiiro and Sante headed to Kaneki.

"Thank you!" said Jiiro.

" We couldn't report one ghoul. The actual number was thirty seven, not thirty six" said Sante.

"How?" asked Kaneki

"There was another member among them. It was Naki, I think he is the current leader of white suits. This guy was the thirty seventh one. We think he was spreading information to the others of our presence." said Jiiro, pointing at the white suit in clown mask.

The ghoul was breathing.

"You must be noobs. Trying to gain fame and fear by killing ghouls aren't you? I've killed so many idiots like you. It was so easy to get you here."

"What do you mean?" asked Kaneki.

"Who gave you idiots the information that we will be in this building?"

"Rumors" replied Kaneki.

"When I heard you guys were trying to find us, I spread the news that we would be here. I thought Naki-sama will kill you and finish you all of for good"

"Why invite Naki? Aren't there stronger members?"

"Everyone wants revenge. So does Naki -sama. Everyone in Aogiri tree knows 'Eye- patch' killed Jason. I just aided Naki- sama on his quest for revenge"

"Is that all?"

"That's about it"

"Well then. Sleep"

Kaneki pierced the white suit with all his kagune tentacles, until he made sure he was dead.

The ghoul's death was silent, and, Kaneki thought he might have seen a smile, but, put that thought aside.

Touka looked at the red tentacles coming back out of the dead ghouls' body, dripping blood as they returned to the owner and disintegrated.

.

.

She wondered, how did no one notice something so obvious.

Kaneki's face...

The zipper on his mask was pulled back to show his mouth. His lips were coated with blood, and it dripped down his mask. The teeth on his mask had turned from pearly white to red.

Why didn't anyone notice that?

'Right, he wiped it all off'

* * *

 _She saw Kaneki bent over a body, ripping out the hand of some ghoul and stuffing the flesh in his mouth. He was gagging and was trying to swallow it. Regardless, h_ _e took another bite, and another, and another until most of the hand was gone._

 _He stood up, and looked down at the bodies piled up. He smiled._

 _'Why is he smiling?'_

 _He wiped the blood off his face along with the smile. He looked up and saw her, unfazed._

 _She wanted him to be ashamed, shocked, scared that he was discovered doing something that stupid, but he looked at her. He was blank. Kaneki acted like this was normal. She wanted him to do something._

 _She wanted him to show some sign that, the Kaneki she knew was still somewhat there. The Kaneki Ken she knew would probably cry, and feel disgusted for doing something so wrong..._

 _He didn't_

 _He succumbed so low for power._

 _"Touka chan!" came a Jiiro's voice, but she payed no mind to it. She was trying to wrap her head around what happened._

 _'People change so much... Did I seriously think he will be the same again?'_

* * *

"Where is Ichimi?" asked Touka

"He is downstairs with Banjou- san and Tsukiyama-san. We should go check up on them" replied Kaneki.

"Let's go"

As they headed down, one word resonated inside her thoughts and became clearer, and more real.

'Fake'

* * *

 **Yup... I'm still no good when it comes to fight scenes. In my head, the fights looked so awesome, but, when I re- read this. It didn't sound all that good . Please feel free to imagine the fights, and refer to my writing just to know the conclusion of the fight and key points in it.**

 **DeltaMarauder: I hope this chapter gave the answers to all your questions. If not then; Gagi and Guge are obviously alive and, I checked up on wikia and stuff to find Gagi and Guge's rank, but, I didn't find it, so I assumed they were pretty weak(compared to Naki). Would be awesome if you could tell me in which chapter it was mentioned that Gagi and Guge are S class, since I don't really remember all the details.**

 **Naki is the leader of the white suits, and I mentioned before that some ghouls kidnap humans for quick bucks, Naki would be doing other important stuff which normal Aogiri big wigs do, like being a body guard for some rich ghoul, helping Eto, I don't know, but they might be doing something big(That's what I assume,but, you never know since I am not the writer of TG.).**

 **I hope that helped.**

 **HiddenOne15: Thank you for reviewing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **OK, I'm done. Thank you for reading, following, reviewing and favorite-ing! I hope there weren't too many mistakes.**

 **And...as always, I hope you enjoyed yourself!**

 **BTW(SPOILERS! GET OUT OF YOU AREN'T CAUGHT UP WITH :RE!)**

 **Rest in peace Shirazu Ginshi. You will be missed dearly. I know, that you will come back(I'm in denial). You have changed the biggest idiot in :re into a respectable man. Your presence has changed many and I know they are all thankful for that. You will be remembered by millions.**

 **We'll miss you Sharkboy.**


	9. Chapter 9: Track

**CHAPTER 9**

* * *

"You idiot! I'm so lost right now!"

Koiso walked through the seemingly abandoned streets, trying to figure out where she was. She was new to Tokyo and had no clue as to where she was. She was supposed to go to her friend's house, but, she found herself to be completely lost. Now, she was calling her friend, hoping that her battery doesn't run out before she finds her friends' home.

 _*"Calm down! Where are you now?"*_

"I don't know. No one is here. I'm standing near some building under construction. I think I got off at the wrong station- **thud**!"

.

.

.

.

.

* _"Hello?"*_

 _*" You there? Where did you get off?"_

 _*"Hello? Hey! Why aren't you talking? Is there no signal? "*_

 _*"Koiso you are scaring me. Talk!"*_

She stood there. Her grip on her phone loosened and it fell on the asphalt. She didn't care whether it was broken or not. A more pressing occurrence unfurled in front of her.

She couldn't move, she couldn't blink. She couldn't breathe. An invisible hand was choking her, was it her fear? Was it despair? Was it death itself?

She stared, her eyes refusing to move away from the nightmare like scene. Her legs froze on the spot.

"W-w-w-w-what"

The thing. It looked so human. It screamed and climbed back up to the floor it fell out of. Something from it's shoulders broke into the walls of the building and prevented it from falling. It was in full white and it seemed to have been dyed red in some areas.

If it falls, will it hunt after her? If it climbs up, would it come back down and find her?

Did it already see her?

She saw something glowing, it became brighter. Another thing came closer towards the edge of the broken window of the building.

'Don't see me don't see me don't see me! DON'T SEE ME!'

The glow had a shape. It looked like a distorted picture of the wing of the devil. It glowed blue, purple and orange against the darkness of the night.

Blurs of pink shot out of the wing and hit the thing that was scaling the building. It happened so fast that, her eyes could not catch up with anything.

She needed help. She bent down and picked up her phone. Her friend was still on the line and the phone was still functioning. She began running at full speed.

 _*"Hey! Hello! Talk to me please!"_

"Y-Y-Y-Y-Yuu"

*" _oh my gosh don't scare me like that! What happened!?"_

"I-I-I-I-I s-s-s-aw s-s-s-s-s-something c-c-climb u-up! W-w-w-w-wing something! I don't know!"

 _*"What on earth are you talking about!?"*_

Her breathing was heavy. She didn't know where she was running, but, she had to get away from whatever it was she saw.

What was she running from? Maybe it wasn't even something scary. Maybe it was her hallucinating. How did she know it would harm her?

'What is going on?'

Her legs collapsed beneath her and she found herself to be in some alleyway, crying and completely exhausted. She held on to the phone like the voice of Yuu held her life.

"I-I-I-I-I saw something, climbing up a building under construction. I don't know where I am. I'm so scared! I'm so scared! I'm so scared right now!"

* _" Okay. Calm down. I know it's hard, but calm down. Deep breaths okay. Are you safe now?"*_

"Yeah"

 _*"Good. Now explain what happened"*_

"I told you, something was climbing up a building! A building!"

*" _How did it do that"*_

"S-s-s-something, from it's shoulders, like a sword or some spear"

 _*"How big was this?*_

"About a-a-a-as b-b-big as...i guess about four to five feet?"

*" _How many were there?"_

"Two I think"

 _*"Okay tell me where you are, what shops or building do you see around you?"_

"I'm in an alleyway. I saw a lot of restaurants. I think residential areas are a bit farther away"

 _*"Get back to the station now and ask what station you are in if someone is there and tell me where you are. If you can't understand where you are, give the phone to the person. They might know this place better than you. Stay in the station okay?"_

 _"_ Okay"

Yuu was in her room. Tomorrow was supposed to be her day off, but, she will be called back for investigating on her new findings. Her friend came to Tokyo to visit her, she would also be staying there to attend college. They were two years apart.

She re- read the notes of the description of what Koiso had told her. She knew what it was and hoped Koiso would be safe. Honestly, she was scared for her friend and she herself was shaking like a leaf. She had to report this now.

She placed the phone near her ears and held on hand were wet with sweat. Yuu's free hand had encircled itself around the handle of a nearby chair.

'A ghoul investigators' job never ends huh.' Thought Yuu as she dialed another number in to contact her superiors.

* * *

 **2 HOURS LATER. 6TH WARD**

Touka was now in her room, tending to her wounds. Her clothes would not serve it's purpose anymore. Her wounds had almost completely healed.

'Must be because I started eating more'

Eating a little bit of human meat had increased her strength considerably. Was that why Kaneki had begun cannibalizing?

He was ready to eat his own kind?

.

.

No... Human meat or ghoul meat, it will cannibalizing to him, because, he is both.

What does it feel like to eat his own kind?

He just kept digging himself deeper and deeper down into a hole that he believed to be a tunnel, searching for a non-existent sun. It will lead him nowhere.

He seemed to want to torture himself. Blaming himself and taking everything upon him. Whenever he does that, it looks silly to her. He was like a kid in the guise of an adult, thinking that he is fooling everyone, but he isn't. She won't be fooled.

He can't trick her, she can't trick him.

Before she could help him, she needed to first figure out herself.

She hoped she could guide him out of the confusing and tangled up threads that made this world.

The threads which bind them to responsibility, danger, guilt, anger, revenge and everything that makes up this place they call 'home'. Untangling herself from such things is what is called true freedom.

The threads can cut her finger if she isn't too careful, she can mistake one route for another, she can get both of them more lost, or get them closer to the exit.

She wondered what the right path depended on.

She measures his true self against her illusions of him. The true Kaneki Ken was nothing like what she had seen. She needed to re-mold a new image of him.

She was angry because of the fact that he began cannibalizing, but, could she really judge him? He wanted power, he was doing what needed to be done to get it. Doing things the right way won't get anyone anywhere.

No one would want to go the right way, no one wanted to be pure anymore.

She was left alone, but...she didn't mind

* * *

Ken was regretting. He slipped up.

He let her see. He let her see him cannibalize. Would she care? He didn't really want anyone to see him do something so disgusting. He didn't want to admit to himself that he was the one doing this grotesque deed.

It was not him who was cannibalizing, it was not him who left Anteiku, it was not him who left Hide, it was not him who turned into a ghoul. It could be considered a coping mechanism.

He looked at things from a third person's perspective. None of this was him, that's what he wants to believe, but the bitter, bland and rotten taste in his mouth pulled him back into reality.

He tried to wash the taste away with water, but it remained. He tried eating some of the sugar cubes which the manager had offered him before, but they were nothing against the putrid taste of ghoul flesh.

'Like rotten fish guts...and the texture like worn out truck tyre, the after taste, like it was being kept in sewer water for days. Like the taste of a pill dissolving in your mouth, but much, much, MUCH, worse... It never goes down smoothly. Push it down with blood... it tastes' like paint and petroleum'

He was standing in the bathroom, staring into the mirror in front of him, his hands on the sink, trying to decide whether he should puke it all out, or keep it in.

He didn't find answers.

Ken gave up and went back to his room and took out his book.

He saw the slight crack between the folded page and the unfolded ones'. He flipped to the page he was on and decided to lose himself in it for the night and forget about what happened a few hours ago.

* * *

Touka stood in front of Kaneki's room.

She wanted to ask him why he was cannibalizing.

Touka had heard rumors about how those who cannibalize won't just get stronger, but might develop a kakuja if lucky, or go insane.

The manager, Uta, Yomo- san and even her father had cannibalized. If they remained sane, then Kaneki might have a chance... or not.

He was changing into something dangerous. It might look tempting to him, but, it isn't. All unpleasant things are tempting to the eyes, that's the point of their existence. He should know that there will be side effects, and none of it will be bearable. He can't fend off the aftermath for too long.

Would he got to such extents for power?

She felt like she had the responsibility to stop him from doing something stupid, but, no one had tried to stop him so far. Do they know about this? Did Kaneki plan on hiding the fact that he is cannibalizing?

She wanted to stop this because she thought Kaneki would never do something so rash and stupid. Kaneki might regret his actions in the future.

This was unlike him. Kaneki was worse than her when it came to morals and righteousness, like some white knight from a story.

Touka wondered, whether this change in personality was his true self. He might not be as pure as she thought. Uta had told her countless times about how everyone wears a mask in front of others, even if it's the person they trust most.

Kaneki must have a mask. Would she be forcing him to turn into someone who he is not if she stops him?

'Why on earth am I thinking so much about asking him a question?'

The answer to her seemingly endless doubts lie behind the door.

She knocked on the door twice.

* * *

Ken was fifteen pages in when he heard someone knock on his door.

'Why can I never complete this book?'

Ken kept the book on his table.

He opened the door to be met with a surprise visitor. It was Touka.

He just stared at her, like he was being caught doing something bad( She did catch him cannibalizing).

How was he supposed to answer her? She might feel disgusted, or angry, or disappointed.

"You treat your guests well. Aren't you supposed to call me in?" asked Touka

"A-a-ah, yeah, come in" responded Ken as he scratched the back of his neck.

Touka entered and stood against the wall next to the door. Her arms crossed and one of her legs was folded back so her foot rested against the wall.

"Why are you here so late Touka-chan? You should get some rest." said Kaneki.

"I'll get straight to the point. Will you continue to cannibalize?" asked Touka. She didn't flinch or seem scared. Of course not, she was Touka.

"I don't know" was his dishonest answer.

"Were you testing the waters this time?" pressed Touka.

"I guess"

"Do you want to get...stronger?" inquired Touka.

He knew what she wanted to say. He could almost hear her unsaid 'Do you want to get a kakuja'. Why did she change the word?

"Yes" stated Kaneki.

Touka sighed, almost disappointed with his answer.

"Look, I want to warn you that getting a kakuja ain't easy. You don't just eat a lot of ghouls and voila! You got yourself a kakuja! You need to know your normal kagune like the palm of your hand, and, you need to make sure that you are physically strong enough to handle a kakuja. Otherwise this is a gamble on your sanity and your life."

"I will be fine"

"Saying 'i'll be fine' won't help anything. I don't want you to lie, what you said right now should be true." said Touka as she stuffed her hands inside the pockets of her hoodie.

"I can handle it"

She seemed slightly happy, maybe she found a silver lining to this situation.

"So...I'm assuming you can now eat human meat"

.

.

Human meat...

The first time he ate it, he didn't feel like himself. He didn't leave a single piece and licked off all the blood until the parcel which the manager gave had almost nothing on it. His face was dripping with blood and his shirt was ruined.

He remembered wiping the blood off.

The blood had smeared all over his hand and the color had become a light orange or yellow like color in some areas. He recalled his biology class in his school.

When the blood vessels and RC cells are removed from blood, the liquid which we get is called plasma. Plasma is a pale yellow liquid which liquefies the blood so it can flow.

It was stupid how he recalled something as unimportant as his biology class at that time.

He almost forgot the blood on his hands, on his face, his neck, on the table, on the carpets, in his mouth and down his throat. He licked his lips only to be met with more, sweetness.

Blood and flesh. Human blood and flesh. What part did he eat? A hand, a leg, a shoulder, an organ? What did it help the man or woman do? It must have been essential. He just took something important and just ate it like it didn't matter at all. Like it was something insignificant.

He was mortified. He hated admitting that he loved the taste.

He didn't answer Touka. His hands went up to touch his chin and he looked down, trying not to meet her eyes.

He could feel Touka glaring daggers at him.

'She must have caught on'

He replied with a small "No".

"How are you going to live then!? Live on ghoul meat and coffee? " spat Touka.

He nodded slightly.

"You were seriously planning on cannibalizing for the rest of your life!?" shouted Touka as she marched towards him, holding him up by the collar of his shirt.

"Yes". He didn't know where he got the confidence from.

"What the heck did you say!?" Touka looked like she wanted to strangle him.

"I'm going to cannibalize" said Ken. He stood straighter, he was looking down on her now.

"That sounds retarded" said Touka.

"How?" asked Ken.

"Cannibalizing will keep you alive, but, you will forever want the taste of human flesh. It will be exactly like the time when you tried to starve yourself. You were about to eat Nagachika. Who knows who you will eat this time." spoke Touka.

"I can control myself" stated Kaneki. He knew it was a lie. What if he wants human flesh again? He has no control over himself. What if he eats someone close by? It can be anyone. Banjou -san, Ichimi -san, Jiiro- chan, Sante -san, Tsukiyma -san, or even Touka herself.

"Yeah right! You had such good self control when you were going after Nagachika and that time when you were drooling in the streets and the alleyway. I heard from Yomo-san you even attacked him once. You really can control yourself well huh?"

"That was before"

"'Before'? Come up with something better! You can never avoid some things in life. Human flesh is one of those things" said Touka.

"I won't eat it"

"I will make you eat it. Just like old times" said Touka looking back at him one last time. She went out of the room, knowing fully well she can't stuff the flesh in his mouth this time.

* * *

Akira was in her cabin . She looked through the scans of kagune traces from the recent 11th ward ghoul massacre and a few other ukaku and koukaku ghoul kagune traces. Seidou, Amon and herself were searching for any similar kagunes, but, so far were unsuccessful.

Originally, the 11th ward in-charges' looked into it and found no traces similar to the ones found on the spot. They speculated these ghouls were a group who were moving around a lot. Only three types of traces were found.

Two were suspected to be an Ukaku or a koukaku and the third was confirmed to be a Rinkaku.

There was one witness, but she couldn't give exact details.

All ghouls were suspected to be S- class since three ghouls took out thirty four ghouls with seeming ease.

In the 20th ward, there was Gourmet, Eye patch, the daughter ghoul and Rabbit. Aogiri was out of the question since all the dead ghouls wore white suits, which just so happens to be a group in Aogiri tree.

Akira had suggested just looking at the S- class ghouls, but, they wanted to check all ghouls who were recently active in the twentieth ward. A waste of time really.

She was looking through the scans when she saw something on her desktop.

It stated that two scans had an eight five percent to ninety nine percent match.

'Which ghoul?!'

She snickered. Pride and anger lit up inside her as she read the name of the ghoul.

'Rabbit huh? I knew it was gonna be one of those four'

"Amon!" said Akira.

"Hey! Show some respect to your senior!" criticized Seidou, but she paid no heed to him.

"Yes!" said Amon as he came to her seat.

"I found a match. Rabbit and the one suspected to be Ukaku or Koukaku are the same" informed Akira.

"So, the Rinkaku has to be Eye patch! They seem to have ties and they appeared together" said Amon. A sort of excitement and curiosity was visible in his eyes.

"The other one is Gourmet. It just came up now" said Seidou.

"This is bad" said Akira.

"Isn't that obvious. Three S- class ghouls teaming up" said Seidou as he turned his chair to face his two co-workers.

"We are the ones' responsible for Rabbit, Takizawa and Houji-san are responsible for Gourmet and Shinohara-san and Juuzou are responsible for Eyepatch. Twentieth ward will be busy now." stated Amon.

"No! This means I have to work with Juuzou AND Mado!"

"I also share your displeasure, Takizawa. Amon, confirm whether the rinkaku IS actually Eye patch." commanded Akira

"Yes of course" said Amon, heading to his cabin.

Sometimes, he felt like Akira was the superior and not him. She was a natural born leader, and she was Mado- san's daughter but he never expected her to take his place so soon. No one would believe that he was the senior.

She was obviously talented, and he knows she will have a good future. He was pretty proud of his subordinate.

'I'm not the one who should be proud though. Mado san would have been happy to see his daughter like this.' thought Amon.

A small smile found it's way onto his face.

* * *

She was walking through the dark and dreary tunnels of their current base, with no particular goal in mind when she came across something.

Naki was sitting by a wall in the corner of a door-less room. His subordinates; Gagi and Guge, sat beside him, comforting him. He was crying like always. She walked up to him and sat in front of him, cross legged.

"What happened Naki-kun?" asked she, her head slightly tilted to the side.

"M-m-m-my Leg. She cut it off." sputtered Naki.

"Who?"

"A rabbit"

Now that, piqued her interest.

"A rabbit?"

"Y-y-yeah! She, cut it off" wailed Naki

"Why?"

" She killed everyone. I fought her, but she did this to me!"

"Why were you there?"

"Eye patch! He killed Aneki! I want to kill him! I will kill both of them!" declared Naki. Snot and tears dripped down his face.

"Eye patch?"

"Yeah!"

"Who told you this?"

"One of my subordinates. H-h-he came a while ago! He did so much for me! I let him die! I killed him!" whined Naki.

She stood up and patted him on his shoulder, and wiped his tears away. His tears were replaced by new ones' quickly.

"It's all right. He was weak, so he died. You were weak, so you lost your leg. You were stronger than him, that's why you lived. It's his fault he died. Don't blame yourself okay. Cheer up!" Her words comforted him slightly. He nodded at her and wiped his tears away.

Her smile was visible though she was completely covered in the old white cloth. She could feel the bandage brush against her skin and loosen up as she moved her lips.

"Thank you Eto- chan!"

"You are welcome" said Eto, slightly ruffling his already messy hair.

She walked away, getting lost in the darkness of all the tunnels and rooms.

'So... he came back'

* * *

 ***Brings up a shield to cover myself***

 **Sorry for the late update. I was kinda busy last week, and only got free time now. Next chapter will come out on the same day as this day. Schedule shift! I got time to make a kind of cover for the story, and I changed the name of the story to 'Ripples'. The pic is actually from the Tokyo ghoul 2016 calendar, which was drawn by Ishida Sui. I photo shopped it to make it clearer.**

 **This chapter was pretty hard to write. The OC's are fodder BTW. Forget about them. I needed a witness for the events, and a random, confused and scared girl roaming around Tokyo's most dangerous ward and witnessing a ghoul incident seemed nice(What was I thinking!?). AND she just so happened to have a ghoul investigator friend. This was such a bad idea. I wanted to make some character in the actual story witness it, but, none of them seemed right. Hide and Yoriko are out of the question. There was this guy in the Light novel who I wanted to use but he is already kinda involved in the ghoul world. The same guy witnessing the same ghouls over and over again ? I didn't like the idea of that.**

 **Also. Eto is here! Nine chapters in and she is already here! Yaaay!**

 **Akira and Amon reappearance and Seidou introduction!**

 **Next chapter will be calmer.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it! Sorry for all the errors. I will correct everything later, when I am free.**

 **Thank you for reading, reviewing, following and favorite-ing! I hope you had fun!**


	10. Chapter 10: A small piece

**CHAPTER 10: A small piece**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

* * *

Hinami was at Anteiku, reading a book with the lack of anything better to do. She could hear the customers talking from anywhere inside the building. Sometimes, she listened to anything she found to be interesting.

It has been a month since she had last seen Touka and Kaneki. She kept wondering to herself as to where they were, what they were doing, and whether they were happy. Answers to these questions remain to be mere speculations since there was no one there who could give her the right answers.

She was living with Irimi, and she had to admit that though it wasn't as fun as staying with Touka, she was happy with Irimi. She was kind, gentle and never really talked much.

It was obvious Irimi didn't know how to take care of children, and was very nervous on the first few days.

Hinami tried her best to make her relax. They discussed about books(Hinami did most of the talking), and she had also taught Irimi whatever she knew from reading books.

Irimi was just as curious as her about the world. She had wanted to go to school, and if she could, she would gladly take up the offer if the opportunity presented itself.

Hinami wanted to see Touka and Kaneki again. She tried to move on, she really did, but, everything around her reminded her of them. Anteiku was where they belonged, it was where they met, it was where they laughed and...It was where she was happiest.

She missed her 'onii- chan's' smile. She missed him most when reading Takatsuki Sen books. He always talked about plot points and characters, crafted theories and asked for her opinions and always helped her with reading. He remained patient no matter how many times she disturbed him.

She missed his voice as he read the book out loud to her. She never listened to the story for more than five minutes. She almost always ended up listening to his voice alone. It was soothing and remained constant. It almost sounded like a bed time story, but only when you listen to the words do you realize how dark her favorite stories can get.

She wanted to see Touka.

Touka was the only person to whom she can show her spoiled self to. Hinami knew that Touka loved school, and she quit for Kaneki. Hinami knows that even though 'Onee-chan' made it sound like she didn't care about school, everyone knew she did. Touka wanted to study and go to college. Hinami had heard Touka talking about how she wanted to know more about the origins of ghouls.

Neither Kaneki nor Touka wanted to go, and yet, they did. Hinami couldn't understand why both of them went. Koma-san and Irimi-san said they had to.

She heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" she said.

Koma entered the room with a steaming cup of coffee. He placed the cup on the coffee table in front of her.

"A special treat for a special guest".

"Thank you!" said Hinami, taking the coffee cup in her hand.

"How are you faring?" asked Koma.

She was hesitant about how she should reply.

"I'm trying to get used to this.I-I- Irimi-san is amazing, I like her a lot, but... I miss onii-chan and onee-chan"

"Well, all of us had wanted to stop them, but, we couldn't", said Koma.

She stared at the mug, she could see her face on the still liquid. Steam slowly reduced.

Her hand was sweaty. She wanted to ask something. This was an obvious question which no one had asked, but she had to.

She had asked Irimi, but was interrupted by a phone call. Hinami had asked Nishiki, but, he just replied by saying that Kaneki and Touka are idiots. Hinami's only chance was Koma.

"Koma- san"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, The Devil ape shall gladly answer any of your questions"

"Will..." 'This is it! I have to ask!'

"W-Will ...they come back?"

Koma looked at her, his face contorted into a confused expression. It immediately molded itself into a smile.

"I hope they do. Even if Kaneki-kun doesn't want to come back. Touka-chan will drag him here" said Koma comically

"That's right..." Agreed Hinami, but she still had her doubts

"...What?...What if she couldn't?"

Koma patted her head. 'Maybe I should tell her the truth'

"Everyone who is with Kaneki- kun, see him as their leader. He is above them..." Koma knelt down to her height.

"You are right Hinami-chan, I can't tell whether they will come back. All those who follow him can't refute him, they can only watch him from below as he walks forward"

Was he saying they won't come back?

"So...I can't see them again?". Hinami frowned. She couldn't even see them off.

"Well we still have Touka-chan. She is the only one there who can actually confront him. Unlike the others', those two are good friends'. Friends hide nothing from each other. Even if Kaneki-kun wavers, Touka won't."

It was funny, how she was asked to depend on Touka even if she wasn't there. No matter how far apart they were.

'I still have to depend on onii-chan and onee-chan.'

"I hope they are safe." said Hinami. That's the only thing she could hope for.

Koma could see the sadness in her eyes. Her shoulders hunched and she made herself look smaller than she was.

If this is how she would be the whole time, and, if Touka discovers that he was the one who made her sad, she would definitely not go easy on him.

"I, the devil ape can assure you this one thing though" said Koma.

"What is that?"

"They love you. That's why they will definitely come to see you again"

"Really!". Her eyes lit up.

"Of course. Now, how about you drink your coffee before it gets cold?"

"Yes. Thank you again for the coffee!"

Koma stood up. "You are welcome"

He exited the room and headed downstairs. 'I want to believe what I told you Hinami-chan.'

It was a busy in the shop since it was a Monday morning and everyone loves a good cup of coffee to start the day, both ghouls and humans.

'I wish I could believe in white lies again'

He went to the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the used utensils.

' Well, the devil ape's magical hands are one of the reason why Anteiku can function. I will do my best like always.'

* * *

Hinami continued to look at the closed wooden door.

'They love me?' thought Hinami.

Love. It is what drives most people to do things. Love for your job, love for your family, love for your friends, love for happiness and for the love you want to attain. People call it a beautiful emotion, but it is too complicated from what she has seen. Love mostly only results in failure.

Most love stories are too happy and perfect. She knows that it is ridiculous to believe in such things. She wished she could believe in such things.

Other girls her age read silly books about childhood sweethearts, fate, destiny, happy endings as the sunsets on a clear summer day, true love, soul mates, and saving the world from the clutches of evil.

In her books, the heroes are the villains, the villains are heroes. It is never black or white, it is always gray.

Love.

Was it Kaneki's love towards Anteiku that made him go? Or was it love towards his human friends? Maybe he wanted to be loved? Kaneki was loved by everyone. She loved him, so he wouldn't go in search of love. Did Touka go for the same reasons too?

If it truly is love that made them leave, if it is love that destroys' them, then she doesn't need that love.

* * *

Touka was alone in the training room.

Touka wanted to check how powerful her kagune truly was, but, no one to test it out on, so she stuck to practicing stances.

Kaneki was teaching Banjou how to read. She could never control her laughter when watching them(Which, was also one of the reasons why she was here).

Whenever she laughed, Banjou gets nervous and discouraged, which, makes it even harder for her to stop laughing. Jiiro and Ichimi join her too.

Kaneki gets annoyed and requests them to stop laughing, but, he could never stop her.

She had made it her goal to defy every single one of Kaneki's orders after their whole disastrous conversation about cannibalism. Refuting him, damages him. If she damages him, he gets weaker and she can easily convince him to eat human meat. She knew it was a pathetic plan, but, fighting him isn't exactly an option anymore. She has to admit that he is getting strong too fast.

So far, her plan seems to be working...she hopes it is.

He seems sad, which, she is getting used to.

He likes looking like a beat up dog. To her, it feels like he doesn't want to let go of his past.

Kaneki wants to be stuck in the past, replaying everything over and over again. She knew it was too much of her to expect him to move on from whatever that happened with Jason so fast, but...Its' been a month, and even if he isn't as happy as a clown, he could smile at least once!

She thought this was going to be a lot easier.

Touka takes out her anger by punching the walls, and breaking them. Since it is an abandoned building, she has a lot of walls to break, though no one really encourages it.

. . . . . . .

" _Kirishima san, you should restrain yourself from breaking the walls, you know,_ Calm down?"

" _Shut up Shittiyama! Be glad it's the walls and not your face"_

 _. . . . . . ._

She sparred with Tsukiyama, and, as much as she hates to admit it, he gave her good tips. Kaneki and Tsukiyama's martial arts, wrestling, boxing and her prior knowledge of whatever Yomo had taught her had combined together to form something vicious.

She could now go up against Tsukiyama easily. She knows their fights won't conclude in draws or lucky wins' anymore.

Going against Tsukiyama wasn't exactly achievement though. She had something else on her mind.

'I need to get the hang of it!'

* * *

Shuu was at his home, playing his piano. He was playing a song called 'Donna'. It's a hard song to forget. He had heard it when he was around eleven or twelve. Shuu immediately went to search for the piano sheets. He was eager to learn it and wanted all the pieces of what he had learnt put together. It has a very nice meaning which is pretty easy to understand.

Shuu closed his eyes and listened, listened to the emotions his words could not convey, the emotions which he never knew he had.

'This instrument is dangerous, yet beautiful. Anyone who listens closely, will know what I feel'

He was, rather rudely interrupted by his pet, Hori. He would be angered if it were someone else, but, this was Chie Hori, and the bundle of envelopes in her tiny hands meant valuable information.

" _My pet!_ What did you find?" asked Shuu.

"Can you stop calling me your pet?" asked Hori. Her face conveyed nothing. She wasn't angry, or frustrated. It was just a simple request.

"What else should I call you?" asked Shuu.

"...Never mind."

"Did you find anything Little mouse?"

She walked towards him and handed over a few pictures.

"Well, Madam A is gonna be there, and they had replaced the white suits with another group from Aogiri."

"Then, it was all wasted effort" said Shuu as he sighed.

"No. They are running late on orders, and the price of all the humans who are kept for auctioning has increased. Now all the richer ghouls are interested".

"Is there anyone too dangerous?"

"The buyers themselves aren't, but all of them have body guards. I got a picture of one of the leaders of the group who are going as body guards" said Hori handing Shuu an envelope. He ripped it open with his hand. One picture lay inside.

He takes out the picture. It was a ghoul he knew.

White hair, white trench coat and a red mask that covered half his face. His expression remained calm and he looked slightly annoyed. His eyes saw everything to be below him. His right hand digging into someone's neck. His hands and face dyed red.

"His name is Tatara. Don't know whether it's his real name or not, but I guess you already know him. _"_ said Hori.

"When are the auctions? Did they delay the date?"said Tsukiyama, turning to face her.

"No, it's the same date. Twentieth of next month" said Hori.

* * *

 **Back on schedule! I'm updating this on a Wednesday again!**

 **I have finals coming up(NOOOOOO! Let me live in a cave! I hate society! Don't make me a corporate slave!) This chapter had no Kaneki POV, but, I assure you, after this arc is over. There is going to be a lot more of Kaneki and Touka.**

 **So, since finals are coming, up, it is gonna be a roller-coaster schedule from now on. This chapter was rushed.**

 **The dialogue idea for the Hinami and Koma conversation was shamelessly stolen from one of the light novels.**

 **Anyways. Thanks for reviewing, favorite-ing, following and reading! Sorry for all the mistakes I made! I will try to correct all of them.**

 **Hope you liked this chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11Build

_His hair was longer, and it was back to it's normal color. He felt the gentle rays of sunlight falling on his face, warming him up. A river, flowed lazily in front of him, the evening light reflected off of it. He pulled up his knees towards his chest and rested his head on his hands which were placed on his knees._

 _He felt smaller,his hands looked less rough. It looked like the hand of a spoilt child._

 _"Ne Kaneki?"_

 _"Yeah?"_

 _"Do you think we can catch some fish here?"_

 _"Why do you want to do that?"_

 _"Because it's fun!"_

 _"It's not. You just sit and wait until a fish catches the bait. Sometimes, you need to wait for hours!"_

 _"We don't need fishing rods ya know"_

 _"What else are you going to catch it with, Hide?"_

 _Hide rolled up his sleeves._

 _"My bare hands!"_

 _Hide ran towards the bank of the river, but Ken stretched his arm forward and caught him by his collar._

 _"You shouldn't go Hide! Don't you feel bad for the fish?They'll die!"_

 _Hide stood still, his back facing Ken. Hide snickered._

 _"You really can't say that Kaneki"_

 _Hide was bigger. The river bank disappeared._

 _"Why can't I?"_

 _Hide turned around, he was smiling. Blood coated his teeth and face. The skin on his forehead completely torn off and a sickening white replaced the skin. Ruby red blood dripped from his head and mixed with the tears in his eyes and slid down his face._

 _"It's right underneath your feet. Look!"cheered Hide._

 _Ken looked down. Blood, bones, flesh and flowers were strewn across the endless field._

 _"You killed them. You can't talk about mercy"_

 _"H-h-h-hide!?"_

 _Ken's hands were encircled around Hide's throat._

 _"K-Ka-GAAAGH-kA-NE-ki! STH-st-op!"_

 _Hide fell to the floor. He drowned in the sea of blood and became a part of the field._

 _Ken knelt to the floor, immersing his hands inside the sea of blood to search for Hide. He could never reach deeper into the sea. He couldn't find him._

 _He looked into the blood. He felt hollow._

 _'I killed you.'_

 _Ken felt something drip on his head. His hair began to turn red._

 _'My back...It's heavy?'_

 _Ken looked behind him. His kagune was out, it was stretched out towards the sky. It pierced someones back and bloomed through their chest.._

 _He brought his kagune down and gently placed the body on the floor._

 _"o-o-o-o-onii-ch-an"said the unrecognizable piece of meat in front of him. It melted and dispersed into nothing._

 _"Hinami?"_

 _'You killed them. Why do you keep repeating your mistakes again and again Kaneki kun?", it sounded like she was bored._

 _"Rize?" She was in front of him. Her hand folded, her nails were as red as her kakugan._

 _"You killed them. It was your hands. That was your kagune."_

 _"I didn't"_

 _"You did"_

 _"I didn't!"_

 _"What's that blood doing on your hand? How did it get there?"_

 _"I DIDN'T KILL THEM!"_

 _"...That's right..." Rize sat down next to him, her voice and appearance morphed. Her luscious locks shortened and darkened to a shade of night blue. Her kakugan disappeared, and was replaced with white and a blue similar to her hair. She had changed in every single way._

 _"Huh?". Ken looked at her, confused._

 _"You didn't kill them"_

 _"Touka chan?"_

 _He felt her hand on his shoulder._

 _"You didn't kill them Kaneki You just wanted to protect us."_

 _"Touka chan?"_

 _"I'll help you"_

 _Touka stood up and walked forward. The ripples created by every step she took, colored his legs red. The waves kept coming, until they died down. She disappeared without a trace. The waves kept crashing against the rotten rocks._

 _He wanted to ask her something. He stood up, drenched in blood. With every move he made, blood trickled down his hands, legs, face and tickled every inch of his skin. He began walking in the direction Touka went._

 _Every time his feet landed on the floor, it crushed something beneath him. He began running._

 _He ran and ran and ran and ran. Everything looked the same, the sky remained still, the sea remained red, and a single white flower bloomed every once in a while._

 _His legs never got tired, and so he kept running. He came to a halt when he saw a child, sitting under a tree. The boy was searching for something inside his basket. He looked up and saw Ken._

 _"Why are you running?"he asked._

 _"I don't know"replied Ken._

 _"Are you searching for something?"_

 _"I think"_

 _"Is it a toy? I'm making some right now!" said the boy. He showed a bunch of colorful threads and cotton. Ken was interested._

 _"I want to see. Can I?" asked Ken_

 _"Of course!"_

 _Ken sat next to the boy. The tree provided good shade and the wind gently blew, making the dried up leaves slowly drift and fall._

 _The boy had already made one toy. He took it out and showed it to Ken._

 _"This one is called 'Demian'! I really like him!" said the boy, handing the toy over to him. The doll had marbles for eyes and a button for a nose. The doll's hair was short, ruffled and blonde. It's most striking feature was it's smile. It was beautiful and earnest. Ken handled the toy gently, like it would shatter any given second. He gave it back to the boy._

 _The raven haired boy was working on another toy._

 _"What are you going to make this time?" asked Ken_

 _"Fairies! I have a lot of glitter and sparkly stuff. It won't look nice on Demian, but it would look good on them." said the boy as he sewed up a wing._

* * *

Ken woke up too early. His eyes were heavy, but they refused to shut completely. After turning and changing positions countless times, he knew it was time to call it quits.

He stepped out of his room and tried to make as less noise as possible. He had all the time in the world now.

'Maybe I should try that move again. It never comes right.'

He looked at his feet. The newly emerged skin from regeneration finally went from being pink to a pale white. His legs had completely healed from the fracture he got yesterday from trying a particularly complicated move. The book had mentioned to not try it unless the basics were perfected,but, he had no time.

He entered the training room. Books were scattered all over the place.

'I should clean up later. Why doesn't Touka-chan ever listen?'

* * *

Hide was happy. He was told by Marude that he will be promoted from CCG's errand boy to a junior investigator. He was surprised at how easy it was. The CCG were desperate if they would hire a no name who had never even seen the gates of the Academy which every investigator seems to talk about.

His legs moved to peddle faster and his cap threatened to fall off because of the wind. He was heading to the CCG headquarters, he had just finished the last delivery and every muscle in his legs ached.

Hide took up the part time job to distract himself. He was in no urgent need of money.

College, part-time job and the CCG now became his life. Even though he was busy, even though he should be happy that he got a job at the CCG and would get precious information no normal person would ever get about a ghoul, he wasn't.

He was lonely. Kaneki, was his only true friend.

Sure his phone was filled with numbers of different people, but he only remembers one number as clear as day.

As much as he talked with others, every word he spoke was to hide his loneliness. He didn't care about their topic of conversation, but he still laughed,made random jokes and tried to fit in.

He talked to the people in front of him, but his mind wandered to his previous conversations with Kaneki.

There was definitely something wrong with Kaneki and he knew it. He now regrets not looking into it or taking it seriously.

Kaneki wore masks, and Hide accepted that, because he himself had given many fake smiles to others. They were never too close, never too far, but, they were there for each other.

Kaneki was currently labelled as missing. His face was printed on posters and pasted across all the notice boards in Kamii. It irritated him. He could hear the whispers of other students, more specifically, the ones' who shared classes with Kaneki. They called him 'the silent one', 'the plain one','the nerd','the one who ALWAYS helps with homework', 'the weakling'.Some didn't even remember his name.

Hide was bombarded with questions by the police, students and teachers for two weeks and still is. Anteiku was also questioned a lot, and it was suspicious how one of their employee went abroad around the same time Kaneki went missing. The police were not really doing a good job at finding him and they really can't be blamed because, it was too clean. No clues left behind, it was like a clean slate.

Kaneki's family members were also questioned, but they claimed to know absolutely nothing, and they most probably didn't. The moment Kaneki turned eighteen, he was free.

They didn't care about him, he didn't care about them.

He was an adult and he didn't need to be under anyone's care anymore. He came to Kamii with a scholarship so eighty percent of his tuition fees was take care of. He worked in Anteiku and paid the rest of the twenty percent by himself.

Hide still remembers Kaneki's face when he saw his new apartment. All the furniture was second hand, the room was small and the paint was chipping off, but, this was his freedom.

He hoped that he could just march up to Kaneki's apartment, knock on his door and expect the door to unlock, but, of course the door handle wouldn't go down. He could never knock on that door again, expecting Kaneki to answer.

The police had checked Kaneki's room and found nothing missing, broken or stolen. Everything looked normal, so he was not kidnapped. He just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Hide called him, but, it was always the automated message which he got as a reply. Kaneki sounded way too formal, but, the message was the only thing that could connect him to Kaneki.

Even though he knew Kaneki won't ever hear his messages, he almost always left a message after the 'beep'. They range from his normal and cheery self, to down right begging in desperation.

Hide kept calling, until the day even the automated messages won't reach him. The battery on Kaneki's phone died. His last message was pathetic.

Now, his only hope was Anteiku, Big girl and bookstores.

Kaneki always saw him as a sort of hero. He hates to sound haughty, but, Kaneki really did outright say that Hide was like some knight when they were in the first grade. He was honored, but, as the years rolled by, and as he grew up, he realized that, Kaneki was wrong. He was no hero, he could never be a hero in reality. He was too weak. He could never help Kaneki.

'I say he is my best buddy...but, in the end, maybe I was the only one who thought that. If not, then... you would have told me something.'

He slowed down as the CCG headquarters came into view. His legs felt like jelly when he got off the bike. He headed inside the building. It was cold outside, and the building's temperature was higher to keep warm. He didn't realize how cold he was until he kept his hands inside his pockets.

He headed upstairs. Amon and Akira had said there was a pretty dangerous case.

The floor was mostly unoccupied and his footsteps echoed through the hallway. He opened the door to the office. As expected, Amon, Akira and Seidou were seated around a table, searching through papers.

"Yo!" said Hide, walking towards the table.

Akira nodded, acknowledging his presence as her eyes scanned the papers in her hands.

"Hello, Nagachika." greeted Amon as he looked up at him.

"So, what was that case you told me about?"asked Hide.

Seidou got up from his seat with a small bunch of papers and handed it to Hide. Hide looked at the front page. It was the profile of a ghoul. To be more accurate, it was about Eye patch.

Name: Eye patch

Threat level: S-rate

Kagune Type: Rinkaku

Blood type: (Unknown)

Sex: Male

Age: 17-21

Affiliations: Rabbit, Gourmet, (Unnamed. Subject 745)

First sighted in the 20th ward with Rabbit and Subject 745. Engaged in battle with formerly Rank 1(Currently associate special class) Amon Koutarou. Escaped along with Rabbit. Reappeared in the 11th ward with Rabbit and Gourmet and killed thirty four ghouls who, are suspected to be from Aogiri tree. Current loction; unknown.

"Eye patch is with Gourmet?"

"Yeah. They seem to have teamed up. Maybe they are a part of some troublesome group like Aogiri. We are checking whether these traces match any other ghouls. We might be mistaking one ghoul as two different ones'" said Seidou.

"The kagune traces left in the places were Binge eater attacked resemble the Eye patch's. But, Akira told us that the Binge eater was female" explained Amon, pointing the scans of Binge eater's and Eye patch's kagune traces.

He tried to check HOW on earth they figured out anything with those traces scans because frankly, he understood crap. Amon pointed at white spots, and explained how they were similar(At least that's what he thinks he is explaining).

'Did he forget that I'm a noob, or is he seriously expecting me to understand something?'

"He was recently hired. He wouldn't know any of this" said Akira.

'Thank you Akira-san!' thought Hide.

"Sorry Nagachika" said Amon.

"It's fine" said Hide, a sheepish smile on his face.

Hide sat beside Akira and looked at Eye patch's and Binge eaters' profile. They had starkly different track records, the only similarity was the kagune traces.

'The kagune traces are similar and when Binge eater was rumored to be in 20th, Eye patch appeared around the same time...'

"Maybe they are related by blood. Like brother and sister, or cousins" said Hide.

"Eye patch and Binge eater?" asked Seidou.

"Yeah."

"Possible. But, since the way they work is very different, I think it's safe to assume they are on bad terms" said Akira.

" Binge eater hasn't been active for about two months now. Maybe they fought, and maybe Binge eater lost. Eye patch is speculated to be a cannibal so he might have eaten her" said Amon.

"Binge eater is an S rate ghoul. She wouldn't go down so quietly, and even if Eye patch was a cannibal. He can never completely finish eating ghoul flesh. There has to be leftovers somewhere. Also, Eye patch appeared very recently, nothing like him has been seen before. Binge eater is the only one connected to him." explained Akira.

"He just popped up out of nowhere didn't he? Maybe he traveled from somewhere else. Even Rabbit is like that"said Seidou.

"This is a pain!" said Hide, slumping back in his seat.

'Binge eater stopped being active, when Eye patch appeared...

.

.

Eye patches...Eye patch huh?

Kaneki never told me why he wore that Eye patch...

.

.

He started acting weird after the surgery... he didn't eat properly and puked when he ate that burger... . . . .Was that accident really that traumatizing?

...Maybe-

.

.

No way! Maybe I'm too stressed!'

Every single thought he had, just somehow traced back to Kaneki. Even this, somehow just went to Kaneki.

'Maybe I'm going crazy?'

* * *

Touka was annoyed to see Tsukiyama early in the morning(Early in the morning being 11:00 am)

Tsukiyama wasn't being annoying like always, speaking in some random language, he looked pretty serious when he was talking to Banjou and Kaneki. They were in the training room.

The lavender haired ghoul turned from the other two to look at her.

"Kirishima san! _Perfect_ timing! I have something important to tell"

"You plan on dying?"

"Haha! Satirical as always, but no. It's about the auction" said Tsukiyama.

"Say the important stuff sooner you idiot." said Touka as she walked towards the three.

"It's being held on the twentieth of February" said Banjou.

"Aogiri is involved again." said Kaneki.

"What are they doing?" asked Touka to Tsukiyama.

"Body guards. They are also talking care of the goods. Two Aogiri big shots are involved. One of them is Tatara"

"Tatara? That guy with the red mask?" asked Touka

"Yes" replied Banjou.

"Who is the other one?"

"We don't know" said Kaneki. He held up his hand, his thumb going above his index finger and pushing it down until it cracked.

"I thought you told this Auction was pretty small. Why are Aogiri getting so involved in this. I don't think two leaders need to be involved" said Touka.

"Aogiri doesn't do anything without getting profits from it. I'm sure the Auction is just a cover for something else" said Banjou.

"A cover for what?"

"We don't know. But, we have to find out." said Kaneki.

"Ain't that obvious. Where is it being held?" asked Touka

"The thirteenth ward." said Tsukiyama.

* * *

 **Aaaaaaand there you have it! Another rushed chapter I didn't have enough time to write! My excuse is the same excuse that many other wonderful, tortured authors give. . . . ...it's finals! Yaaaay!(Kill me please)**

 **Anyways, in the dream which Kaneki had, i mentioned a boy who made dolls(the boy is supposed to be chibi Kaneki), he had already made a doll of a boy with blond hair and named the doll Demian. To those who are jobless, search the story 'Demian'. It will parallel to a certain relationship in my story, and for those who are obsessed with Tokyo ghoul it also parallels with Kaneki and someone else in the main story. They boy is also making a fairy. The dolls represent Kaneki's precious people. If you haven't already figured out who these two are(though they are very obvious), I will tell them later in the story(maybe).**

 **Hide POV! He is sad, and I like it! I love writing sad stuff, I think it's like that with most people(or not). Sad scenes somehow feel easier to write. And... Hide is(kinda) catching on to what is going on.**

 **Also, I wanted to tell you guys that this story will be eventual Touken, but, the Touken will only come at the final few chapters. I'm bad with romance, I'm pretty sure even if i write something fluffy early on, it will come out pretty fake. Also, the romance is not the main focus, it's more on Touka and Kaneki as characters and how they affect each other.**

 **That's about it. I hope you like this chapter. Thank you for reading, reviewing, following and favorit-ing! Sorry for all the mistakes, I will try to fix it all.**

 **I really want to thank those who reviewed because, you guys make me want to change stuff in my crappy writing. Those who follow, favorite and read...thank you! No seriously, thank you! You guys motivate me.**

 **xxxDreamingflowerxxx: Thank you for the advice! I'm going to edit that soon. There's actually a reason why Touka is angry, which, will be explained later.**

 **MadamAerith: Thank you for reviewing! The chapters, before editing, looked like a train wreck. Anyone's vocabulary would commit suicide after seeing that nonsense.**

 **With that, I end this message. I wish you guys a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!**

 **Have a blast! Be happy! I know it's easy to say, and if you are going through difficult times, don't be too depressed, try to smile, even if it is fake, it's still a smile. Fake smiles make you stronger, and, if you do it long enough, they will eventually become real because you endured all the nonsense life throws at you.**


	12. Chapter 12: Holes

**I'm not dead! I don't know whether that's a good thing or bad thing, but, yeah. I'm updating after ages. I'll try to be more consistent now that exams are over. Man am I glad that I can finally throw away those thick textbooks and crappy notes. NO MORE DISGUSTING GRADES TO LOOK AT!**

 **Anyways, Chapter 12**

* * *

Chapter 12: Holes

* * *

It was a Friday night and the seven were watching a movie. Kaneki felt odd doing something as normal as watching a movie with friends. There was no reason to be on guard, or anything of that sort. Normalcy felt completely out of place in his life. He just waited for this scene to crumble in front of his eyes and vanish, reality bringing him back to hell once again.

He could wait for hours and nothing would happen since this was reality.

The half-ghoul's thoughts were on the auction. He grew extremely suspicious after hearing that two of Aogiri's big shots will be going as bodyguards for a rather small auction. The whole scenario had 'Something's wrong' written on it's forehead, if it had one.

Kaneki's concentration was obviously not on the movie. From what he had seen, it was about a zombie apocalypse.

The rest of them were very into the movie. Tsukiyama kept talking about the background music and the director while Touka tried to find faults in the movie and kept complaining every two minutes. Banjou, and the other three kept silent, intently watching the movie.

Kaneki was sitting on the floor, legs crossed next to Banjou.

'There has to be something bigger going in the background, but what? More humans to sell? Why?No, something else...What would Aogiri wants?' thought Kaneki. He couldn't come up with anything.

If he knew what their major objective was, it could help but, he didn't know what the organization wanted. The most obvious one he thought of was, they wanted a society dominated by ghouls, but, they have been hunting ghouls too. He decided it was probably because they didn't want the passive ghouls defying them.

'Wanting to be on top? Is that it?'

Bringing his thoughts back to it's beginnings.

'What the need to accomplish their goal is more important than what they want to accomplish now' decided Kaneki.

'They might need money, but, they get paid for being bodyguards'.

He thought about it for a while, but, drew up a blank. Sighing, he turned his eyes back to the bright screen.

The humans in the movie, rushed into a building. They climbed to the top floors. One of them had an axe, another, a chainsaw, and another, whom Kaneki assumed to be the main character was holding a gun. On the top floors, there were more people, who seemed to be waiting for the three. They went to the windows and checked outside. They spotted a huge group of the un-dead heading towards them. The humans opened fire.

"If they're the un-dead, what the f*** are bullets gonna do? Are they idiots?" said Touka.

Kaneki just wondered how on earth the people got their hands on guns, and why guns?

He found it weird that guns were legal in some countries. It had it's advantages and disadvantages. It could help put up some defense against ghouls, but, anyone could use it to murder innocent people.

"I hope something like this never happens. We would have a hard time getting guns."

"Use your kagune you idiots! These zombies are slow. Just punch em in the gut and tear off their heads" blatantly replied Touka.

'Gun restriction laws are harsh' thought Kaneki.

.

.

.

.

'So how did the ghouls in Aogiri get them?'

He clearly recalled some ghouls who were in groups and were carrying guns around. Why didn't he even bother questioning it? It was obviously uncommon!

"Tsukiyama-san?" called Kaneki.

"Y _es?"_

"Did you see Aogiri members carrying guns?" asked Kaneki, excited since he thought he got a lead as to what Aogiri might want.

Tsukiyama looked down at Kaneki, a bit shocked. The question was out of the blue.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Answer" sternly said Kaneki.

"Yes. They used it against the doves. They probably wanted to save RC cells for their kagunes." answered Tsukiyama.

"Do you know how they could have gotten them?"

The purple haired ghoul paused, unable to give an answer.

"Do you have something in mind Kaneki-kun?"asked Tsukiyama, curious.

Banjou had heard the two and decided to pause the movie.

"Hey! Why did you do that?" asked Jiiro, clearly agitated.

"I think these two have something to say" said Banjou, pointing at Tsukiyama and Kaneki.

Kaneki looked at the five confused ghouls.

"We would have had this conversation anyways." said Kaneki as he continued.

"It was suspicious that there Tatara and another Aogiri leader were going as bodyguards for a small auction. I thought something bigger was going on, something more important. Maybe the auction is a cover-up." said Kaneki.

"What for?" asked Ichimi.

"Aogiri were using guns when they were raided. Maybe the auction is a cover up to sneak in weapons. If so, we need to stop it" said Kaneki.

Touka looked at Kaneki like he was retarded.

"We are seven people. Not only are we supposed to save the humans and kill the ghouls in the auction, you want us to fight against Aogiri too?" asked Touka.

Kaneki was miffed. Touka was trying to go against everything he said for the past week, but, this time, she actually had a point.

"But we can't just let them be. We have to do something." replied Kaneki. He understood how childish it sounded, but decided to say it out loud anyways. Touka was surprisingly, not angry.

"So what do you think we can do?" asked Touka genuinely.

Though Touka was opposing Kaneki, she didn't feel satisfied seeing his confusion this time. The only reason Kaneki decided to leave Anteiku was to defeat Aogiri tree. Now, an opportunity has presented itself on a silver platter, but, they can't do anything to stop Aogiri tree.

"I'll think about it" said Kaneki.

"So we really are fighting Tatara-san and his gang huh?" said Sante scare. It was not just him though, all of them were scared.

"Before that, we need to know who the other leader is. Without knowing that, we would be in _serious_ trouble" said Tsukiyama. He turned to Banjou and said, "Do you think you can come up with something Banjou-san? You have been with them for quite a while"

Banjou looked at the flamboyant man, still not used to Tsukiyama's extravagance. He thought for a while.

"I think this might be helpful" said Banjou.

"There are five leaders in Aogiri tree. There's Eto who none of us have seen"

"I heard Eto is the strongest among them" commented Ichimi.

"What about her Kagune? Do you know anything about that?" asked Kaneki.

"No, one has seen her fight. But, I don't think she would come for these auctions" said Banjou.

"Why not?" asked Touka.

"She's not very active . She's only involved when the CCG is involved or something threatening to Aogiri tree happens. Same goes for Noro."

"Noro?" asked Tsukiyama.

"He wears a mask and a red robe. No one has seen his-or her? face. " said Sante.

"You don't even know what gender Noro is?" asked Kaneki, shocked. Everything in Aogiri tree was suspicious, especially Noro and Eto. 'This is going to be harder than I thought'

"Mhmm. But, that's good news for us because we might come out alive" said Jiiro.

'Of course I knew this wasn't gonna be easy. But...it would be too early if I die now.' grimly thought Jiiro. She clasped her hands tightly and she kept tapping her legs, nervous.

The rest of them looked at her, though what she had said brought everyone's confidence in their success rates down, it was the truth. The seven collectively tried to accept the fact.

"So...It's either Naki or Ayato" said Sante, breaking the silence.

Touka looked up at the long haired ghoul, eyes wide. Sante felt like a criminal. The girl's eyes were wide and the light wavered with sadness or anger. Touka immediately turned away and tried to look normal, but it was too late.

'I'm such a wuss. Since when could that b****** make me feel like this?' thought Touka, disappointed with herself. In the corner of her heart, she felt that she was asking the wrong question, but, she ignored it like she always did.

'If I act like this, I'm never gonna move on. That brat doesn't care, so I shouldn't'

Kaneki looked at her, guilty and worried, he HAD broken her brother's bones. He did not regret it though, he felt it was right.

'Ayato-kun needed it' thought Kaneki.

"Oi? What are you looking at?" asked Touka, seemingly back to her normal self.

"Nothing" said Kaneki quickly and turned away.

Tsukiyama stepped up and went to Touka, patting her on her shoulder.

"I know that it will be hard for you to see your brother again. But..."

"What?"

"He would never try to hurt you again. He must have finally realized how wrong he was" said the purple haired ghoul.

Touka had heard this before, her being his sister didn't stop him from. eating exactly changed? It probably got worse.

"How the hell do you know that? That brat is stubborn, and I don't CARE about him anymore. I wouldn't care if he killed himself now. Who knows, he's probably dead already" said Touka.

Tsukiyama looked at Kaneki, and turned back to Touka.

"You see _darling,_ Kaneki-kun knocked some sense into him before. He _must_ have learned his lesson now" stated Tsukiyama.

Touka looked at Kaneki. She did recall Kaneki fighting against Ayato, but, she didn't know who exactly won. Yomo and Uta had appeared out of nowhere when she regained consciousness, so she assumed either one of those two just swatted Ayato out of the way.

'Kaneki ACTUALLY defeated AYATO then!?'

"What exactly happened? Did you give him a speech about how great I am or something? If so, he would just be more pissed off" said Touka.

'Yeah, that's it. He probably just did that.'

Kaneki looked like a cornered animal.

"Not really, I just, ah, umh" 'How on EARTH is going to sound humane? Maybe I should have just stopped?' thought Kaneki.

'No...He deserved it, they all deserved it. He did worse things to her. '

"I just beat some sense into him. He was being disobedient and he was hurting you" said Kaneki.

Touka looked at his eyes, there was not a hint of doubt or remorse.

'Something messed up happened for sure. Man am I clueless'

"It's decided that it's going to be Ayato-kun or Naki. If so, we might have the advantage, but there are other ghouls to fight. Tatara is still a huge wall in our way" said Tsukiyama.

"For now, I think we just need to find a way to disrupt their plan and avoid battle as much as possible." said Kaneki. "We will discuss about this later today"

The rest, excluding Touka, nodded. Touka simply looked at him for a moment and turned away.

Touka walked out, while the others continued to watch the movie. Entering her room, she sat on her bed, and fiddled with the wedding ring around her neck.

'Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, WEAK WEAKWEAKWEAK!'

"AGGHH!"

Touka almost smashed her free fist against the wall. Gritting her teeth, she cursed herself.

'Angry. Always angry...Clueless and always in the dark'

She stood up and started to shadow fight. Closing her eyes, she imagined an enemy whose face she couldn't see. They stood inside the tunnels below Tokyo city, which used to be lifelines for ghouls.

Touka made the first move. The enemy silently waited, and simply countered her. She lost herself in the motions. Sweat started to form and her punches and kicks became sharper, but, it was not enough. The blue haired ghoul believed this would relieve her of her anger, but, the practice was more like fuel.

'Faster, faster, faster! '

Kicks and punches, jumps and dodges, the longer she did them, the faster they became like second nature. The moves that needed concentration, became reflex actions.

'I hate you...' thought Touka

'I don't care...' said the enemy. Stable as a rock, balanced and calm.

Her emotions were jumbled. Anger and happiness blossomed together. Touka liked it in a strange way.

Anger always guided her. Anger was the only emotion which was helpful. She didn't need to get hurt when anger surged in her mind. The vile emotion made her efficient and desirable. Ayato would not have left if she had remained angry. Hinami wouldn't have needed to see the horrendous sight of her mother's organs split and stuffed in a bag if she had remained angry and sought revenge.

Anger did hurt sometimes, but only when she acknowledged the consequences.

She turned her current dissatisfaction into anger.

Touka stopped abruptly, panting.

Bringing her hands to her knees, she smiled. She didn't understand why she did so. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing.

Her enemy was undefeated and calm by the end of their 'fight'.

'I'll see you again trash'

'Maybe you are the trash' replied the thing, with it's back turned to her as it walked away into the darkness of the shadows.

Touka stood straight, staring off into the distance.

'Maybe I am'

Touka heard a knock on her door. She opened it to find Ichimi.

"We're discussing about what we are going to do for the auction again"

"Didn't we finish five minutes ago?"

Ichimi gave her a weird look.

"It's been and hour and a half" stated the spiky haired ghoul.

"What?... ...Right, yeah" said Touka, immediately changing her sentence to hide her looked own at her drenched shirt. She was stinking of sweat.

"I'll be back" said Touka, closing the door. She changed out of her clothes, surprised to not have noticed how much time had passed. In her mind, it felt like a few minutes had passed.

Well, not exactly. Touka didn't care about the flow of time when she was practicing. She felt like she could go on forever, regardless of her exhaustion.

'What's done is done. I better go' thought Touka and headed out. As usual, everyone was gathered in the living room.

Touka stood next to Jiiro, who, gave her a small smile to greet her. Touka gave her own. Jiiro and Touka had grown close enough for Touka to be patient around the energetic girl. It was convenient that Jiiro loved to talk and did not let anyone interfere. Touka didn't need to forcefully have small talk with her, the brunette did it for her. Touka simply listened, and occasionally spoke to assure Jiiro that she truly was interested, and sometimes, she was.

Sante, Ichimi and Banjou were conversing in a corner of the room. They kept talking about the movie, and how it was a rip-off of another movie of a similar theme. The movie was a distraction from the seriousness of their future discussion. If any of them thought too deeply, they knew their thoughts would go off on a dark path.

Sante was concerned about their leader, Banjou, more than himself. Sante's strength came from the fact that everyone was happy and worry-free. If his friends felt nervous, so did he. It kept him grounded to reality, but, if everyone around him became paranoid, so would he. Banjou, Ichimi and Jiiro's worried expressions did not help calm his nerves one bit.

"Did you figure out something?" asked Tsukiyama to Kaneki, who was currently standing next to him.

"Yes. It might sound risky, but, I think this is the only option we have got" said Kaneki.

* * *

 **Aaaaaaaaaaaand Cliff- hanger! I hope you enjoyed this chapter ! What do you think is gonna happen next?**

 **Also, the new chapter for :re...*SPOILERS***

 **The Kirishima reunion we've all been waiting for! Goddam was it heart-breaking! The panel with Touka and Ayato standing next to each other and seeing their height difference...DAAAAAAAMN! Kaneki and Hinami too, it was so bittersweet. No matter what Hinami or anyone does, Kaneki will never change his mind. ;0; Also, YOMOOOOOOOOO! You are f***ing GOD! Blocking Arima's Quinqe with his bare hands?! What?! And Furuta in the last page was the epitome of creepiness. It would be less creepy if we knew what he has in mind, but, we can't even speculate what he would do next. Looking forward to next chapter, hopefully we get an update on Mutsuki's situation.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There's gonna be mistakes, and I'm sorry about that, I'll try to fix em'.**

 **Thank you for reading, reviewing, favorite-ing, following, etc. Have a nice day!**


	13. Chapter 13: Caution

**Hi...**

 **I have no fancy excuse this time! I was working on this for weeks and only got time now to edit it. It's shorter and than many other chapter but...yeah. Here's chapter 13 of...What's this called?**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Caution**

* * *

Touka felt nervous, but, managed to hide it. It was her first time in a limo and raiding an auction with who knows how many ghouls.

Her face was hidden by a foreign mask, shaped like a pair of blue and violet wings which covered half of her face.

Her hair was pulled back in a small ponytail. She was dressed in a three piece suit. Next to her sat Jiiro in an orange dress and a flamboyant orange mask. Both of their outfits were bought by the Gourmet, said ghoul sat opposite to the two.

Touka looked outside, the moonlight paled compared to the vibrant city lights.

Jiiro stared at the dark-haired girl.

'She looks good as a boy too...'

"Never get out of that suit." said Jiiro, to lighten up the mood, and it was her honest looked too good on her.

Touka looked at the girl. She didn't know how to react. Should she be flattered?

"Shut up" said Touka. 'Shut up. Such a nice phrase. Solves everything'

"Of course it would look good on her. _I_ was the one who chose it!" said Tsukiyama.

"Should I repeat myself to you too?" asked Touka. Tsukiyama turned away and looked outside.

Touka, Tsukiyama and Jiiro were to go to the auction as bidders. The three were supposed to attack the bidders, and the rest, were to free the humans locked up. Touka didn't exactly know why she was dressed as a man, but, she was glad. Cross-dressing would help her maintain low profile as Rabbit.

Her original scent was covered up by extreme amounts of cologne.

The limo stopped in front of an overly lit building. Tsukiyama put on his mask and got out of the vehicle, Touka followed. She held Jiiro by her hand and led her out. Jiiro stood in the between the two and tried to look as small as possible. She tried not to draw attention, but it was hard to do in the particular dress.

Touka became less nervous, and more distant as she saw the rich ghouls in shiny dresses and colorful suits. It was surprising how these people could party so freely in such a dangerous world.

'Advantages of drowning in money I guess' thought Touka.

Tsukiyama led them to the seats which were on the top of the many of the ghouls had come in when the trio had gotten there.

Ghouls had come up to Tsukiyama the moment he took a seat, and asked him to introduce his two guests to them.

Touka simply shook their hands and refused to talk, Jiiro, was also the same.

"You are being rude K-san" said Tsukiyama when the three were alone.

"They'll be dead anyways" replied Touka, sitting down. She noticed that the seats had been filled up and the lights darkened.

"It's about to begin" said Jiiro, mouthing Touka's thoughts.

* * *

Kaneki was at the back of the building along with Sante.

"They are closing up the gates. Almost everyone is here" said Banjou as he ran back to the duo's side along with Ichimi.

Kaneki pulled up the red hood of the aogiri robe and the zipper on his mask, closing it.

The robes were found by the gas mask group and they were glad they didn't throw them away.

The mask was stuffy and made Kaneki sweat. It was fine if he wore it for shorter periods of time, but, after a while, it got pretty wasn't exactly the best choice, but, it made the mask last longer.

'I need to get used to this'

The four climbed into the building through an open bathroom window. They exited, finally entering the hallways.

"We need to hurry" whispered Kaneki, but, his voice echoed through out the walls. Speaking, was a bad choice. Kaneki motioned his hands to convey that the four need to split into groups of two. Kaneki and Ichimi went in one direction, while Banjou and Sante went in the opposite.

Ichimi pulled up his hood, his breaths became faster. The silence intimidated him, but he tried his best to ignore it and followed his white-haired leader.

Their footsteps were light and they tried not to make much noise. It had been a while and not one security guard had showed up.

'That's odd, why is no one here?No... They must be close-by.' thought Kaneki. He turned to Ichimi, signalling him to be on guard.

As the two continued, they came upon two Aogiri ghouls.

Ichimi felt nervous, he balled his fists and looked down as they walked towards the two unknown ghouls.

'Don't act suspicious. Calm down' thought Ichimi, taking in deep breaths.

"You two" said one of the ghouls.

"Y-yes" said Kaneki.

"Who assigned you here?"

Kaneki knew this was coming.

'I can't lie, if information is wrong, this whole thing will be over. They have to be killed'

Kaneki charged at the two ghouls. The two were off guard and were late to block. Kaneki's fist made contact with one the ghoul's hand. He immediately followed up with two more punches to the face, knocking the ghoul out.

The other had begun to attack Ichimi. Ichimi blocked every attack the ghoul threw.

'He's getting tired?' thought the spiky haired ghoul.

Ichimi waited, and, as time progressed, the ghoul let down his guard and he struck. A chop to the neck and the ghoul was down.

Kaneki searched the ghouls for anything found and key and two phones. Very cheap and old ones.

'Won't ham radio work better?' thought Kaneki, but put that thought aside for the moment. He gave the phones to ichimi who kept it in his pockets.

Kaneki pointed at the direction the ghouls came from. The two began running towards the direction. The hallways became less decorative, and more darker after a few turns. The tapestry became older and the paintings became dustier.

The maintained area was separated from the unused area by a door. Assuming the keys were for this, Ichimi inserted the key and unlocked the door, finding himself to be right.

They came across another door after a while.

'Were they protecting something here?' thought Ichimi. He pointed at the door handle, and twisted it to open, surprised to find it swing forward. Kaneki entered first, ready for any attack, but,he was met only with the coldness of the room and the smell of dried up and rotting blood.

Inside the room, boxes were draped with white sheets. Taking off the eye patch of his mask, he looked at the contents of the boxes.

It was nothing too abnormal. Knives, swords, broken masks, hand-cuffs, pliers and machetes. All drenched in dried up blood.

"Props for the auction" said Ichimi, looking at a box filled with feathers and shiny shawls.

'There has to be more here. '

Kaneki and Ichimi moved around the boxes, searching for hidden doors, money, equipment and anything out of the ordinary.

Ripping out the carpeting on an area, Kaneki's fingers came in contact with floor tiles.

'Maybe trap doors?' thought Kaneki. Hidden doors; it was a classic in books.

Kaneki began tapping the floor for some kind of difference in sound and almost immediately found one.

He smashed the floor with a punch and moved away the broken tiles, to find a metal door.

'How predictable' thought Kaneki. It was always like this in books. The trap door will obviously lead to something suspicious, but, there would be something strong guarding whatever was inside there.

"Keep guard" said Kaneki, attempting to break the metal door on the floor. He threw a punch, expecting it to bend, but, not a dent was formed.

'Quinqe steel.'

He searched for a lock, only to find none.

'Locked from the inside?'

* * *

Touka grew tired of waiting before the lime lights finally came and concentrated at the center of the stage. The floor moved apart and a pedestal rose. On top of it stood a man in a suit worse than Tsukiyama's. He wore a mask with a pattern of a skull, except, it was in bright neon colors.

"Welcome, to a gallery of the most delicious flavors this city has to offer!" said the ghoul as he jumped down from the rather high pedestal and landed gracefully on his feet.

The ghouls clapped, Touka almost forgot to until she saw Jiiro eyeing at her hands. Touka clapped, albeit reluctantly.

The ghoul rattled on and on, until came, the 'entertainment'. An obviously human woman, was pushed onto the stage in a torn up blue dress. She was clueless as to what was going on. Her eyes were wide and she panted. Her mascara ran down along with her tears.

"Here, we have, a normal woman. Average in every way possible" said the host.

A lime light fell on another woman. She seemed slightly older and was crying hysterically. She was in the same condition as the other woman.

"And here, is her beloved sister. Sibling relationships are complicated are they not? You hate each other right?Or do you love each other? Maybe both. "

The crying girl ran to her sister and held her face in her hand.

"H-h-h-how d-did you get here?"asked the elder sister.

"I am so sorry! I-I-I was out w-w-w-w-with my f-f-riends. I'm sorry!"

"I told you not to go with that bunch! Why didn't you listen to me!?" asked the older sibling, pulling the other into an embrace. The two sobbed, almost forgetting the situation they were in.

"How lovely! Now you two should prove your love for each other"

"LET US OUT! WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" asked the elder sister, her long hair covering up her face and sticking to her skin.

The ghoul went up to the two.

"Entertainment" said he.

"You two love each other right? What are you willing to do to get out of this together?"

"L-le-le-let us g-g-go?"

"I will! I will, but one of you...has to cut off the other's arm, or leg, or ear or fingers! You know, the norms, give us a good show. That's a-AAAAAAAGGGHHH!"

Blood drenched the two human girls' already messy dress. The ghoul looked at the gaping hole in his stomach, he turned around, to be meet with two fingers to his eyes. He screamed in pain, and stopped abruptly as his head fell of his body.

"Let's get this over with" said Touka, as she wiped the blood off her hands on her suit.

The ghouls screamed and the human girls looked at the scene in front of them. They stared at the blue haired ghoul, defenseless. Touka raised her hand and knocked the two out before either of them could open their mouths.

* * *

*CRASH!*

"It opened!" said Ichimi in a whisper.

Kaneki cracked a small smile. His kagune dissipated.

"Stay here, and if something happens, call for back up. If you really can't find anyone, run." said Kaneki keeping his voice as low as possible.

Ichimi hesitated, but nodded anyway.

Kaneki began heading down, staying on guard. Kaneki felt no form of fear, but, simply excitement. Like an adventure. He felt like he could do anything, and he wanted to believe so.

Ichimi looked at the darkness below the door, and slowly heard Kaneki's footsteps sound get lower and lower.

'Run away?...I could help you...You know that right?'

This stranger with freaky white hair, was now his comrade. Though he didn't not know the half ghoul for long, Ichimi was sure of one thing. He knew that Kaneki hated asking for help.

That would probably be the death of him.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed that and sorry for all errors! I'll probably re-edit it. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following and anything else I missed out! Have a nice week!**


	14. Chapter 14:Effort

**Yo! I don't even have a schedule anymore. I just update whenever I get the chapter done. High school is TOUGH! The teachers hate originality.**

 **'You are seniors! You are role models for the younger students! Act your age!' screams the teacher. Little did she know that...we don't care.**

 **Anyways, enough of me. I hope you enjoy reading this!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 14: EFFORT**

* * *

The noise of the ghouls' screams could deafen Touka. It was obviously not going too smoothly.

Dozens of bodyguards came down to fight against the three the instant they saw the host's blood spill on the floor. Touka was doing well, and was surprised to see how weak they were. It was a small auction, but, the guards put up a weak front.

Tsukiyama was outside, dealing with the ghouls who tried to escape, so it was just her and Jiiro in the middle of it all.

She stood before the two human girls who were knocked out. Protecting those two and fighting the other ghouls was hard to do simultaneously. The two humans needed to get out.

Touka peeked at Jiiro, who was also busy. Her dress proved to be a disadvantage.

"Jiiro! Get them out of here!" said Touka, as loudly as possible. She clawed at a ghoul coming at Jiiro across his face with enough force to gouge his eyes out. Jiiro ran towards the two human girls and picked them up. Touka went along with her until Jiiro got out of the auditorium safely.

'Is this really going to work?' thought Touka, running back to the auditorium.

* * *

 _"The CCG. We need their help" said Kaneki."This is the only way we can do something."_

 _The plan screamed 'bad idea'. The ghouls turned immediately to face Kaneki. They gave him a questioning look._

 _"How?" asked Banjou who was the only one who could register what the white haired ghoul had said._

 _"We can ask one of the human victims to call for help. This always happens. Touka -chan had called the CCG once to give fake information"said Kaneki._

 _"Will they listen to us? The doves might think of this as a prank. No way are they going to believe those humans!" said Touka._

 _"We attacked the white suits group and left enough evidence there for them to speculate that an auction might happen. The list with the orders were still in the building. If the people call, a dove or two will come just to check" stated Kaneki._

 _"We would need to wrap everything up and get out before they come, else even we will be caught" said Tsukiyama._

* * *

Jiiro ran as fast as she could and carried the two girls to the back of the building. She felt one of them move. Jiiro stopped and laid the two down. The older girl got up. She looked at Jiiro and was about to scream, but the ghoul girl was quick enough to stop her.

Jiiro, with her one free hand, took out a phone and kept it on the human girl's hand.

* * *

The ghouls in the auditorium were decreasing in numbers, the body guards had reduced but more of the bidders were present. They fumbled in their heels and dress pants just to throw a punch.

Ghouls born and bought up in luxury, reduced to desperate bugs, begging for mercy.

Only a few were left, it was too easy.

Touka brought up her leg to kick back a ghoul who was trying to sneak up from her woman was pathetic, she didn't even try to hide the 'clank' sound her heels made as she walked towards her.

'What do you think you can do? You know it's hopeless.' thought Touka.

She didn't expect retaliation.

.

.

She didn't expect the rich, spoiled, brat to actually block her kick.

Well, she was right, the girl didn't, but it was someone else who did. Without a second's hesitation, this ghoul broke her knees before she could do anything.

"GGGGHH!"

Touka almost fell back, but, steadied herself with her other leg. The pain was aggravating, but she could already feel it healing. Touka looked up, and saw a familiar figure.

"What the f*** are you doing here?"

* * *

Kaneki went down the stairs quietly, expecting something.

No matter how light his footsteps were, they echoed through the small space. The stairs were long and dark, Kaneki began to skip steps and run.

He let his guard down a little since he started to over-analyze every little creak.

'When is this going to end?' thought he. Kaneki felt like it would go on forever. The darkness engulfed him and the silence made him feel like this was all one weird dream.

As he got further, he realized, the stairs were getting more rickety and unstable. It was definitely not old since there was no dust or signs of rotting wood. The wood looked new.

'It was probably made recently in a hurry'.

Some amounts of light began to enter as he moved further.

He slowed down and came to a halt.

The sounds of his echoing footsteps were replaced with murmurings.

'People? More than two dozen'

* * *

Of course.

This was definitely how it was supposed to be. It was either the White suits' leader, or him. It was definitely going to be him because life wants to mess with her. Touka wondered what kind of reunion it was going to be. It was funny, this whole situation was hilarious!

She couldn't take it!

'He will kill me. That's what he wants' thought Touka, but, she knew it wasn't so. He could have killed her ages ago.

"Ayato" said Touka. It didn't sound sad or affectionate. It was empty and tired.

Her leg had healed and now she stood straight, facing the boy who was now almost her height. The ghoul who was there as a bidder ran away while Touka was distracted. Now, it was just Touka, Ayato, and the dead bodies.

"Didn't expect to see you here shitty brat" said Touka, her sarcasm was evident.

"You have the nerve to even TRY to go against me when I had moped the floor with your arse. You ARE an idiot" said Ayato.

'You are right for once' thought Touka, admitting it to herself.

"I think you are the only one who would be proud to say he almost killed his own f***ing sister. Great job a**hole." replied Touka.

"So you admit you got your a** kicked" said Ayato, chuckling.

Weird how they were having a conversation in the midst of the messy battlefield.

'Just like old times'

"Get out of here before I try to kill you. This time, I would do it for real."said Ayato.

Touka smiled.'Only "try to kill" me huh?'thought she.

"You could have done it the moment you caught my leg. Why didn't you?" asked Touka.

"You have a death wish, don't you?! Fine!" said Ayato dodging the question completely. He dashed towards her to throw a punch to her face.

'Not this time little brother.' thought Touka, blocking his punch. She caught him by his elbow and pulled him in to kick him in the gut. He pushed her away and went back.

'Ayato...I know I'm weaker than you...'

"Don't get cocky just because of that you b****" said Ayato, smirking. His kagune morphed behind him and he fired purple shards at the blue-haired girl.

'...But at the very least...I am stronger than before'

She remembered Kaneki asking her to not use too much of her strength at the beginning. Ukaku ghouls try to wrap it up fast. In a fight against Ukauku ghouls, the one who lasts longer, would win. Endurance is what she had wanted to build up over the days.

'Dodge, dodge,dodge, dodge, don't block! '

Touka jumped up, landed and ran towards her brother. She tried to get behind him.

It was a bad move from Ayato's side to bring out his whole arsenal at the beginning. She had picked up a bunch of Ayato's kagune shards and flung it towards him.

Ayato easily caught it with his hands. Touka threw in an uppercut while he was distracted catching the shards. Touka tried to follow the punch with another, but she was blocked easily. Ayato pushed pinned down to the floor.

Ayato encircled his hand around her throat, choking her. He locked her down, preventing her legs or hands from moving.

"Just like last time! Hahahaha! You're a joke aren't you?!"stated Ayato as he laughed.

'Shit!'

He accomplished his motive. He completely destroyed her, both mentally and physically way too fast. The fight didn't even last a solid twenty minutes. It ended as soon as it began.

The blue haired girl squirmed underneath him, trying to get out.

'No! You bastard! I'm not down! NOT YET!'

"gGGAgh! Le-legh-gt m-me go-AGHH!"

She knew she was screwed. Touka thought, maybe, just maybe, Ayato still loved her. Of course he would! She was his sister! Touka hoped that at least a small thread of love remained in hoped he would let her go.

Somewhere in his messed up thoughts, she hoped he remembered the time they spent together as family.

Those innocent days when their priorities were catching worms and butterflies, when they didn't need to care about getting food or water for the next day, and when they didn't need to worry about the villains in the world because to them they didn't exist.

When reality came crashing in on their seemingly normal life, the siblings, especially Touka, was desperate to stay alive. She was desperate to keep Ayato alive. But, desperation got her nowhere.

The two were clueless in the vast world where they did not have neither their mom nor their dad to help them get by. Touka reminisced of the days where her father pretended everything was fine. It was a mystery how he managed to lie so well.

Ayato was also miserable. He was worse off than his sister. The despair in Ayato's eyes sparked a flame in Touka's. She realized sadness got them nowhere.

Anger was her answer.

It was her gateway to a good life. Angry at the world, angry at herself, at the people around her, at the skies, at the earth, at humans, at wealth, at stupidity, and at everything. Her little brother was the only exception.

Anger was unhealthy, it killed her inside.

Anger saved her in the real world. It would save her again.

'You idiot. You shunned your father who raised you, who wanted a good life for you. You hated the man who wanted to give you a new start, and now, you try to kill me. I SAVED your SHITTY self for years! Ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, UNGRATEFUL! '

At that moment, she wanted to hate everything.

Sadness, loneliness, regret, desperation, distrust and every other emotion she had...she tried to turn them into anger.

'I...need to teach you a lesson'

Touka recalled a passage in her biology text book. It said that teeth and nails were humanity's first few weapons to protect themselves.

She had nails.

She had teeth.

Touka lifted up her head as much as possible. She was already feeling sick, and the lights started to dim. She needed to do it quick. Ayato's wrist was completely open.

Touka opened her mouth to reveal a set of white, pearly teeth.

"Haaaaaaaaaaah!" breathed in she.

Her teeth clamped down on his wrist.

Touka heard the bones snap .

Ayato screamed as blood gushed from his stood up and clasped his broken hand.

Touka's neck felt cold after Ayato had removed his warm, sweaty hands. She breathed in as much oxygen as possible. The place stank of blood and she could taste the disgusting ghoul blood by just breathing in.

Her vision became clearer but her head stung. The acrid taste of ghoul blood remained in her mouth. The girl stood up, and looked down. She realized she had bitten harder than she had thought.

Her brother's hand lay, bloody and broken at her feet.

'I...heard it crunch...

...like last time...

...were they my bones? Or yours?' wondered Touka, staring at the seemed very much like a human's hand. It was bony and had very little flesh on it. Ayato was skin and bones.

Ayato cackled, he was in excruciating pain, but refused to show it.

"Whaaaaatever! This is child's play compared to that time! Hahaha! Your shit-head friend did me a favour!" statedd he.

Touka did not what he was talking about.

"What? " asked she, still dazed.

"gggghhh! That white-ha-haired f-f-reak!" said Ayato through his clenched teeth.

'Kaneki?What did he do?'

* * *

 **I hope you like this chapter! There might obviously be errors, but I'll get back to them. I don't curse much, I very, very, very, , VERY RARELY curse. I try to keep it out of my writings too. It might be kinda weird when you see this "*" mark. I feel weird when I see that mark, so sorry about that, haha.**

 **xxxDreamingflowerxxx: I remember you posting a review wondering why Touka was angry at Kaneki for doing stupid stuff. I think that she wouldn't want to show weakness, ever. I think anger shielded her and reduced the pain. She is concerned about Kaneki, but believes tough love might work.**

 **Touka, hasn't gone through anything she went through in the manga, therefore, I believe that emotionally, she is still almost the same as she was in the Tsukiyama arc. Around that time, she was insecure and felt weak.**

 **Ayato defeated her before and criticized her off being weak, I think Touka would want everyone to think she is a tough as nails, and therefore, she puts up a front. I hope that helps! Sorry for writing such huge paragraphs.**

 **Thank you for reading, reviewing, favorite-ing, and following!**


	15. Chapter 15: Stupid

**I am not dead! I am, in fact, alive and well,but, my laptop isn't. It's been four years since I bought my laptop, and well, my baby decided it's time is up and decided to rest in peace for the rest of eternity, basically, my laptop is done for.**

 **I just got my hands on a computer, and will probably be back to my schedule**

 **Sorry for the delay! I know it's no anyone is still reading this typo filled story, sorry for leaving you hanging.**

* * *

CHAPTER 15: STUPID

* * *

Touka stood still,guilt and shame overwhelmed her. She was not supposed to feel ashamed, she was supposed to feel proud! She had stalled one of the leader's of Aogiri tree. Yet, she stood there amongst the bloodied bodies, feeling like a child who lost her new toy while she was playing, guilty and scared because her loving parents will scold her.

'Whose...side are you on?'she asked herself.

'I don't know'

"Whaaaaaaaaaaatever! This is child's play compared to that time! Haha! Your shit-head friend did me a favour!" said Ayato, his hand, already fixing itself.

"What?"

"ggggggh! The white- ha-haired f-freak!"

'Kaneki? Why is he bringing him up?'

Touka pushed Ayato down, similar to what he did to her before. She felt slightly happy, she got her petty and insignificant revenge.

"Why are you bringing him up?" asked Touka.

"Ooooooh! White-knight didn't tell you the full story eh? "

"Stop spouting crap and get to the point!"said Touka, yelling.

"Why do you care all of a sudden?! Run and just save yourself! Who cares about me!?" said Ayato, laughing like a maniac. He was running his mouth, he knew that. Ayato wanted to say that for so long! Touka gets saved, Ayato gets killed. Touka is the princess, Ayato is the villain.

He wanted to be spoiled, to be saved, for just once! His knight, turns out, was not capable of that, so he has to protect himself.

"I care you IDIOT!I DO!You are the one who wanted to get yourself killed!"said Touka, trying to convince him.

"That's because you sucked at protecting me!"

"Anteiku was the best place for us! That was my only way of protecting you! You let go of it all for what!?"

"Because of you!"said Ayato.'There, I said it'.

* * *

Kaneki waited, trying to listen to what the ghouls below were saying. He did not dare to move.

'If I can hear them, they can hear me too'

"We- - - - - - - re- - - - - - - - -ch- - - - - two - - - -Split- - - - - -groups- - - - - - above- - - - - -get out"

The half-ghoul, could not for the life of him figure that out.

'Think! THINK! Split and groups, split into groups of two? What does 'above' have to do with this? Are they coming up?'

"-lead- - - - - - -ukaku- - - - - - attack - - - - - - -CCG tr - - - - - - - -liquids- - -run"

'The CCG? Do they know that they are coming? How? The CCG must have just gotten the confirmation about this auction just now!'

Kaneki brought up his hand, and cracked his finger.

*crack!*

The sound echoed throughout the dark stairways, it was louder than his nervous heart beating wildly against his chest.

'Oh no!'

He knew that whomever was below, definitely heard him.

* * *

"Me?"asked Touka, confused, afraid to learn that she was the reason her brother was in this mess.

"Anteiku wasn't safe, you made sure of that!"said Ayato

"How did I-" "Why did the doves suddenly stop chasing us Touka? Think about it!", said Ayato, interrupting Touka.

"Because we stopped making a havoc "

"No way would being quite for a while make them stop, we did so much damage"said Ayato, stating something obvious that slipped Touka's mind. Touka knew that they did some irredeemable and dangerous things, but,she knew it was not as bad as the things many of the more powerful, dangerous ghouls did.

"We were quite for a long time, I was anyways!" said Touka

"They caught on."

"Huh?"

"The doves knew, they knew we were in twentieth. It was only a matter of time before they found out, regardless of whether you made a mess or not"said Ayato. He wasn't screaming, he was calm. His calm demeanor was more threatening than his screams.

"B-b-b-but, Yoshimura-san, he told me that-" "I kept them away"

'Is...Is that why?. . . . . .Is that why he was out a lot? Was he distracting them from Anteiku, from 20th ward?'

"You realize, that my life is a mess because you were an idiot? You thought you were doing just fine protecting me, but you became softer. You thought that you can actually live peacefully, among those disgusting humans. You bastard, you are so selfish."

'Huh...'

Touka slumped, her shoulder's relaxed. She looked straight ahead, avoiding Ayato's eyes. An idiot, that's what she was.A clueless, helpless idiot.

'What are you doing?'

'I don't know'

'What were you thinking?'

'I thought I was doing fine'

'You were, but was Ayato fine? Was Kaneki?'

'What am I going to do?!'

"Kaneki..W-what happened there?" asked Touka.' I am going to listen to him, for once.'

"I'll show you" said Ayato, bring up his intact hand to her sides.

Touka knew he was going to harm her, she let him.

'How...how am I going to compensate for this?' asked Touka to herself.

'Suffer'

His hand went straight through her, blood poured quickly, drenching her more in that red smell of all of that mixed up, rotting blood was nauseating.

"Agggh!"

"Suffer you idiot!I went through more than this! Way more than this!" said Ayato, pushing her off him. Touka stopped caring. Ayato stomped on her hand, letting all his anger out, pent up frustration just bursting out after years. His hand had already began to heal. He could endure through this without flinching.

'I've been through worse'

He loved her, yes, why wouldn't he love his sister? But, his anger towards Touka far outgrew his love for her. Ayato respected his father's wishes, he protected her, but in exchange for what?

Tired, that's what he was. Tired of waiting to be dragged out of Aogiri by his sister, hoping she would return the favor. It was not going to happen, because she was safe, how would she know? Why would she care? She lived life normally, with no worries, prancing around in that shop's stupid uniform, making coffee, forever oblivious to his fears and frustrations.

'I just wanna be spoiled for once...like you are'

Touka refused to scream, she wanted to suffer silently, make the pain worse. Ayato was doing what he wanted to do for once.

'He probably wanted to stay with me. He probably wanted to work, stop hunting, sleep on a soft bed, protected by me'

She forced a smile.

'I am so, so, so, so, so, sorry!'

"AAAAghh-I-ugh-I am going to-save-y-y-y-you" said Touka. It was a stupid promise, how was she going to save him?She really wanted to. She wanted to hold him close and never let go,but how?

'I want to run away...I'll take you too Ayato. We can go back home and do whatever we want'

Ayato, continued,hurting her slowly. 'You just keep pissing me off'

"You? Save me?How? Don't make promises you can't kee-!"

"A-a-a-ayato?"

Blood slowly seeped through Ayato's clothes, he looked back to see who his lucky attacker was.

"Tsukiyama?You two joined up?!"

" _Nice to see you too_ , Ayato kun."

* * *

 **Was that edgy enough? Or should i make it worse? This chapter's title is so fitting, everyone is an idiot, especially Kaneki(I don't think he would actually be that stupid).**

 **And Tsukiyama is here to save the day! Touka is now competing with Kaneki on who could be the most edgy!**

 **Sorry for all the typos! Thank you for reading, reviewing, favorite-ing, etc.!**


	16. Chapter 16: Mayhem

**Back on schedule, my butt.**

 **What was I thinking, stating the impossible?**

 **Here's the new chapter! Enjoy, hopefully you can even with the typos.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 16: MAYHEM**

* * *

Things happened very quickly, Kaneki had little time to process what had occurred. The moment he cracked his finger, a horde of ghouls came up too see what happened. Kaneki, was the first thing they saw.

"You! What are you doing here!? Who are you?"

"I was supposed to come here, but, I lost my way" lied Kaneki, trying to look and sound as believable as possible.

"Lost your way? We came here together as a group you idiot, don't think you can fool us! Who are you really?!"

"I…..just recently joined here, so I don't know much"

The ghoul who questioned him, seemed to be an authoritative figure. He grunted and asked him whose group he belonged to.

"N-Naki-aniki"

"Bring him downstairs" came Tatara's voice from below.

One of the members came up behind him and held his hands back tightly, like a hand cuff.

Kaneki followed the group down, the light engulfed the surroundings completely as they went lower.

'What are they planning?'

Below, a good sixty ghouls occupied the cave like space, which seemed to have been made hastily. All of them wore the same red cape of Aogiri, and the same mask which he had on now. To his left, stood the ghoul clad in a white trench coat, Tatara, his mask, brighter in color than the blood of his enemies.

Tatara immediately caught Kaneki by his throat and took of his hood and mask, revealing his face to everyone.

"Answer properly or you die. I will not be wasting time one you"

Kaneki nodded in response, he tried his best not to face the ghoul, fearing that he may realize they have met before, in a slightly similar situation. He gasped for air and tried to get into his role of 'new and innocent Aogiri tree dog'.

"How long has it been since you joined?"

"A w-w-w-week"

"How did you join?"

"I heard my…..b-b-brother was here" said Kaneki, struggling to enunciate properly under Tatara's hold.

"Which group are you in?"

"N-N-N-Naki's"

Tatara's grip tightened and he flung Kaneki away. The half- ghoul balanced himself and got up, only to be held down by two other members. He was now sprawled out on the floor. He wanted to finish this fast, and the ghouls holding him down were weak, but, showing his full strength so soon would catch Tatara's attention.

Tatara called another member and started speaking to him, eyeing Kaneki once every while.

'They are speaking in Chinese.'

"Move!" said Tatara to the army in red, breaking the conversation. Every group slowly started moving out, one by one, in order, like this had been done a million times before.

Around ten members remained while the rest cleared away like they were never there.

The man Tatara talked with approached him, and bent down to take a look at Kaneki's face.

"You should do your research before you lie." said he as he stamped on Kaneki's face.

'Wait, calm down, you can kill them all after that group goes away…slowly, painfully'

"Who sent you here?!"

Kaneki refused to answer, he tried to hear the fading footsteps, trying to estimate how far they were. One of his ears, was currently being stamped on, and was probably filled with grime from the ghoul's boots.

'Man I am going to have fun killing you'

' _When did the idea of killing people start making you happy?'_

"WHO SENT YOU?!"

The sound of the footsteps completely ceased. Kaneki smiled.

'Now!'

* * *

It was three in the morning and though Akira was dedicated to her job and knew things like this were going to happen, she was still annoyed. As she was in deep slumber, relaxing and resting up after a long day, her darned phone rang in full volume. Maris Stella was the first to wake up, she found the source of the sound and started tampering with it. Unable to stop it, she woke Akira.

" _Mado-san! Good morning!"_

" _Huh, wh-who is this?"_

" _Hideyoshi Nagachika, The CCG requests you to save the day!"_

" _Is this a prank call? If so, I am hanging up"_

" _Wait, wait, wait! We have confirmed that an auction is being held, they are gathering investigators from all the wards close to the location. You need come to the branch office by two"_

Thus, here she was, in a van filled with investigators like her, some dozing off, others trying to stay awake, though their eye lids betrayed them. The van came to a halt, jolting her awake.

Akira took her quinqe and jumped out following the other investigators. Amon was the leader of their group. He was the only one who seemed to be wide awake.

The moment she stepped out, the cold winter air hit her. Winter was ending, but, the light wind was bone-chilling.

* * *

Touka got up immediately to push Tsukiyama away from Ayato.

"Kirishima- san? What are you doing?"

'What am I doing?'

"Don't hurt him"

Ayato looked at his sister, she was walking after going through all of that.

He saw her defend him.

"What is going on? He is our enemy!" said Tsukiyama

"But he's my brother"

Tsukiyama held Touka by her shoulder.

"Calm down and sit here, he has been weakened thanks to you, I'll fight him" said Tsukiyama.

"But…..fine!"

Tsukiyama's kagune dissipated and he started to fight.

Touka watched, like she always will. Let them fight her battles. She was so confused. Ayato or Kaneki? Ayato? Kaneki? Who? Who to choose, who to protect, who to burden? Why choose at all?

'Exactly….Why choose? Why not both?'

Tsukiyama was losing momentum, he was going to lose, Ayato will heal albeit slowly and will go to accomplish his duties. She needed to fight. She needed to heal fast. She had an idea,but, she shouldn't, she couldn't!

The disgusting smell of ghoul blood filled her nose, it smelled as bad as human food.

'Once, just once is fine right?'

She crawled to one of the nearby bodies.

'It's a human, a human, a human. Maybe, maybe it'll taste like Kaneki, he's also a ghoul, yeah, that's it'.

She ripped off the ghoul's arm, it was a woman's arm. It had enough flesh, but not too much fat.

'Let's dig in' thought Touka as she gulped. Her teeth dug in and took out a huge chunk. On reflex, she was spitting it out.

'Keep it in ! Oh goddamit! Yoriko made this for me! Yoriko's cooking! She put in so much effort…..Shit this is disgusting!'

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, reviewing and following! Sorry about the typos.**

 **Yeah Touka is cannibalizing, I'll explain the reason in detail later on.**


	17. Chapter 17: Opposotion

**CHAPTER 17: OPPOSITION**

* * *

Kaneki's white hair was dampened slightly with blood. The immediate threat was over, but, he had to gather everyone and subdue the rest of the Aogiri members. He put on his eye-patch mask, which he had kept in his pocket. His clothes barely hung onto him. They were shredded. He used the clothes of one of the corpses. It also looked like trash, but it was in much better condition than his clothes.

He slipped into the black shorts and grey T-shirt and rushed up the stairs to find Ichimi.

"What happened?" asked Ichimi, he heard the noise from below, and Kaneki's hair confirmed his suspicion that someone was down there.

"Aogiri members and Tatara were down there. We need to gather everyone and follow them. There is a tunnel that leads to somewhere, I just hope that there is only one route."

"Let's go then!"

* * *

People get desperate, and when they do, they do things. Things that they thought were impossible, things that seemed stupid to them before and things they never understood. Touka did not understand why she never thought of doing this before, this had so many perquisites. She could do all she wanted by going through a little bit of suffering. It was not that difficult.

(Ghoul flesh. How disgusting!)

She could already feel her kakuhou filling itself up with RC cells. It gave her such a rush, such….exhilaration! Like she just surfaced from diving too deep, like taking the first breath of air after holding it for a long time.

The taste still loitered on her tongue, so revolting. The after taste was like bitter(?)human flesh.

'Maybe, this is what dark chocolate is like', thought Touka vaguely.

She remembered Yoriko saying that she hated it. It was a bad version of something good. Touka simply agreed, since she did not know what chocolate tasted like for starters. She wished she had this experience before, she could tell Yoriko that she, in fact, liked dark chocolate.

Tsukiyama danced across the auction hall like a fumbling baby duck, desperate to maintain equilibrium. Ayato, was as slick as a cat, curving in almost impossible angles. His hand had regenerated as red scales.

'One shot, that's all I need'

"Tsukiyama keep him still!" ordered Touka.

Tsukiyama would have been upset about the tone of her voice if he were not fighting with his life under threat.

Her kagune manifested, one last time. Pain seared through her body, like it was the only that existed. She was healing faster, but she still hurt.

She stood up, one last time(it wouldn't be) and ran forward, Tsukiyama was doing his best to keep Ayato still, the gourmet pinned her brother down and Touka fired crystal shards at his back. She stepped up closer and dug her hands into his back, hoping to feel bone.

She crushed anything that felt like bone on his back. Ayato writhed in pain, squirmed so much it was scary to see.

'I am sorry! So sorry! But I have to get you out of there no matter what!'

At one point, he just screamed, his body didn't move an inch, he simply screamed and cried.

Touka looked at Tsukiyama, he congratulated her, but, she felt nothing. Like a hollow shell, she stood, empty and still, lifeless.

* * *

Banjou and Sante were finished with checking the inside of the extravagant structure when they headed out to check whether some of the ghouls escaped. Jiiro had found her way to the two, she was relieved to finally be with her companions again.

The three were searching for the rest of their group, when they spotted lights of sirens, reflecting and moving slowly on the wall. The three looked out through a balcony to see that the CCG had arrived, ready for battle.

"These guys are quick!" said Jiiro.

"Get back in!" whispered Banjou.

They view from the balcony was clear. At least twenty trucks stood, holding soldiers and quinqes, ready to attack. Some of the investigators stood outside, looking for signs of life.

Banjou, Jiiro and Sante crawled back in, as slowly as possible. They breathed out a sigh of relief only when they were inside the shadow of one the buildings' room.

"We need to find the others, the auditorium is a good place to start", said Banjou.

"Right…", said Sante hesitantly. Banjou detected it and asked him what was wrong.

"It's just…we are helping doves. Doves who live to take our lives. I hope all of this will pay off someday"

* * *

Amon and his team waited as a group of investigators headed to check the surroundings. He looked at the building's windows, balconies and terrace, hoping to detect some ghoul activity. It was strange. The lights were on, like it was festival, but, there was no noise, no movement.

"It's too quiet" said Akira, voicing his thoughts.

It would have been well if they detected movement or the usual liveliness, for the lack of a better word, in the building. The silence startled her. It was not just her, everyone there was skeptical.

"Be on guard! Group one, three and eight move forward!"

* * *

Kaneki was pleased to see the entrance to the auditorium. He stopped immediately when he saw Touka and Tsukiyama. Ichimi ran into Kaneki because of the half-ghoul's abrupt halt.

Touka was kneeling on the floor, looking at a beat up Ayato.

'So…..Ayato was the other leader. Should have expected this.' It was pretty obvious, if he thought through it. Noro and the bandaged girl appeared rarely, Naki was too much of an idiot to be left alone. Ayato was their best option.

Kaneki went to the two of his companions. Ayato was motionless, and he noticed that the boy was also unconscious. Touka looked up at Kaneki, she looked miserable. He felt responsible for Touka, and he was disappointed in himself to see her like that. Touka was supposed to be angry, she was supposed to ask him 'Where the hell were you!?', in that angry tone, in which concern was abundantly visible.

'What am I doing?'

"I saw Tatara, they know that the CCG are coming. I don't know how they found out but we need to hurry" said Kaneki, ignoring his guilty conscience for the time being.

"There is no possible way that they found out that the CCG were coming, unless someone tailed Jiiro-san" said Tsukiyama, suspicious.

Touka looked up at Tsukiyama, shaken, if Aogiri members tailed her, there was a good chance she would be in trouble.

"Oh no, we need to find her fast!" said Ichimi, almost screaming, exhibiting rage that none of the three thought he was capable of.

"Search for who?" The trio looked up at the entrance to see Jiiro, perfectly safe. Beside her stood Banjou and Sante.

"Well, this is a nice coincidence! _Fate_! " said Tsukiyama.

"The CCG are right outside, and they are going to walk in any second ", said Banjou, panting. They had ran to the auditorium with speeds he had never ran before.

"Follow me, I found out where the Aogiri members went. They are upto something, don't know what though." Said Kaneki jumping up to the entrance. Tsukiyama followed.

Touka knew that her brother would die if she left him there.

'(Kaneki or Ayato?)'

'Dumb question'

She slid her hand underneath him and carried Ayato up as she stood. He was light, and easy to carry. Touka knew that Ayato would kill her if he knew that she was carrying him bridal style.

"Touka-chan? What are you doing?" asked Kaneki, he knew the answer, he knew that she would protect him. Yet, his mind screamed for her to let the boy go.

'He doesn't love you. Why do you love him so much? Just leave him. Just choose the right path.'

"What does it look like? I'm saving this asshole", said Touka. Touka was back, but, she returned to him changed.

"This is no good Kirishima-san, you are endangering all of us."

"Shut your trap. I don't need any of your help to protect him. If it seems like I am a liability, don't hesitate to leave me"

"Umh…..Touka-san, should I carry him?" asked Banjou reluctantly. He wanted to help Touka, but, he had to protect his old, torturous boss. His desire to help Touka was bigger.

Kaneki looked at Touka like she was crazy.

'We are not done with this', thought he as he led the group to their destination.

Things were changing, there were cogs turning, battles starting. Touka looked at the bloody mess she was, blood dripping every step she took. Just a month ago, she was a normal school girl, working at a coffee shop, aiming to get into a decent college. But now, here she was, a no name ghoul, trying to change the way the world works with equally insignificant ghouls(except Tsukiyama, he was significant, she admitted begrudgingly).

'I hope this works out'

* * *

The doors to the building burst open and the soldiers flooded in. The cold morning air died as Akira entered the deathly silent structure. Funny, it was colder inside than out.

* * *

 **To those who did not understand what touka was doing, she was breaking his spine so that he would be paralyzed.**

 **Last chapter was shit, so this time, I went through a bit of research to make this chapter better.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this!**

 **Thank you for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting!**


	18. Chapter 18: Gretel

**CHAPTER 18**

* * *

Touka was feeling the blood rush into her system again, every breath and movement seemed refreshing, she was recovering. She did not want to be a liability, she most certainly needed to protect Ayato and she couldn't do that if she were being protected herself.

Kaneki lead them through the maze like hallways. It was beautiful and sickening. It had too many decorations. As they moved further, they approached a door, it was not like the rest of the building, the wood and paint on the door was chipping, unlike the others with intricate designs.

Kaneki opened the door and pulled out the rug on the floor, revealing a trapdoor. They went down the creaky stairs and into the light of the cave like structure, a torchlight lit everything up. Everything seemed relatively normal, until she saw the bodies. They were broken and bloody, beaten to a pulp.

There were bite marks everywhere. She would have cringed before, but now she looked at it like nothing, and moved forward with Kaneki, unlike the others who had slowed down to see the crimson red on the floor.

The building was quiet, no one was screaming or cheering for the murder of a human. This situation was the epitome of suspiciousness. Akira's quinqe was out of her suitcase and in her hand, she gripped at it tightly, but her sweaty palms was not exactly helping her hold it any tighter. She stood back to back with Seidou as they searched every direction for a ghoul trying to hide or attack. Her heart was beating faster, eager and scared.

* * *

Her group had moved forward, slowly and steadily. The entrance immediately led to a circular hall, lit up by a giant golden chandelier that looked like it was made of gold and diamonds alone. In the front, there were three passageways, the one in the center led to the auditorium, the other two led to the bar and the ballroom. Most entered the center passageway, the light dimmed down the hallway, and at the end of it, was one grand entrance into the auditorium.

The lights kept glowing softly, changing colors in time intervals. A spotlight, slowly glided over the seats and the stage, highlighting the blood, the bodies and the gore.

'What…..what happened here?'

"H-h-holy shit" said Seidou. Akira would have commented on his crude language, but worse curses were running through her mind.

"What happened here? Why are all of them dead? Where are the ghouls?" asked Akira.

"Their clothing….and they are wearing masks, they are ghouls, these bodies aren't that of humans" said Amon.

Akira looked down, wondering, thinking, analyzing what was given to her. It was a massacre, this was a battle field and the ghouls lost, no the auctioneers lost, so who won?

Seidou and the rest of the team moved forward, checking the auditorium for any ghouls that lived. The light that was blocked by the bodies of the investigators lit up the hallway now as they moved further away. There, in the light, Akira saw spots, like liquid splattered on the ground.

'Blood?'

It trailed through the corridor to their left that led out of the auction hall and to rooms.

'Escapees? Or is it the blood of those who won?'

"Amon!" called she. The man looked up at her, confused as to why Akira hadn't followed, he knew she always took orders and followed them to a tee.

"There is a trail of blood here, some of the ghouls must have escaped!" she declared, confident.

Amon considered it, he pointed at around eight investigators, including Akira, and said, "Follow the trail and do not engage in combat if you encounter a ghoul, make your priority returning safely and reporting every detail"

"Yes sir!" said the group and headed towards Akira, whom they assumed to be the leader of their group.

* * *

The group ran following the noise that came from above ground that became louder and louder as they ran forward. Jiiro had led them forward. Initially, he couldn't hear it, but, the sound of footsteps and voices became more prominent as they ran forward.

"Wait stop!" said Jiiro. By now, the sound was extremely loud.

"Stay" said she as she stepped backward. She stopped and looked up. The ceiling was pretty high with crooked pillars everywhere.

"Up there, the sound of footsteps is different. I think they exited through there, maybe an opening is there" said she as she jumped up, touching the ceiling momentarily.

"Yup! That's our exit" said she as she landed.

Kaneki lead the group, jumping up to open what seemed like a latch. He leaped high, high enough to see the chaos that was below him. It almost felt like he was flying, his cloak looked like a cape. For a second, it was easy to become a child and pretend to be a hero. The sun was starting to rise, the sky was blue with hints of pink. The stars were still out

'Far from the city.'

Below him there around seven trucks, and five cars were there. Investigators stood with their quinqes out. People looked at him and the other new comers.

He landed and immediately started attacking.

"Who the hell are you!?" asked a ghoul.

Kaneki didn't bother to reply. He continued to stab and kick, mindlessly throwing punches, mesmerized by the fight. He looked ahead to see that most ghouls were near the trucks, five were opened and ghouls came out with briefcases and boxes upon boxes. They ran to the sides of the roads that were covered with trees

He ran to the trucks to see what was being taken out. Three ghouls were inside,one jumped at him with his hands ready knock him down, Kaneki blocked and threw him into the second ghoul that was behind him, which knocked the two out of the truck. Kaneki stabbed the third and broke open one of the briefcases. He had seen it before and knew what it would contain.

Quinqes

Touka jumped on top of one of the trucks, it was the best spot for her at the moment, far from the aogiri ghouls and the investigators who would harm Ayato and, it gave a good range for her kagune. She assisted in any place she can and acted as a look out.

Currently, their team and the doves were holding up and aogiri members were reducing, but that was mostly because most members were running away with briefcases and containers. She knew what those briefcases held all too well. Who would have thought their dumb guess would have been right?

This must have been the first time they are doing this, no one would do this twice and she wondered what got them desperate enough to actually steal quinqes.

She managed to jump down on some ghouls that were trying to run away, though every moment she was too far from Ayato was nerve wracking. Obviously many tried to jump on the truck, but, she managed to push them off with the help of Tsukiyama, Ichimi and Sante.

She was now down for a quick….'recharge'.

'One day won't cause any harm now would it?', she thought as she jumped back up.

She wiped off the blood that dripped from her mouth, and swallowed the flesh. It was just disgusting as before, she could never get used to it. Relaxing a bit, she turned to look at Ayato, who was still and unmoving like he was dead. Only the small heave of his chest indicated that he was alive. She sighed, as she saw Banjou in trouble again trying to protect an investigator.

Her kagune unfurled for the umpteenth time behind her, shooting crystal shards at the ghouls. Aiming was hard, but it was close enough to what she aimed. The screams poured in again, and Banjou looked back at her to smile to show his thanks. The ghouls fell, but the screams still continued. The screams were from the opposite direction. She ran to other side, and understood why the screams were that loud.

Her eyes widened, her kagune quivered.

Through the trap door they came from, poured in investigators. Like bees that came out of a disturbed bee hive, they just kept coming out, like there was no end.

All began to attack, glistening quinqes out creating a colorful monster.

One stood. Only one stood still with two quinqes out. Her eyes glistened in the light of the sirens. And her face was pulled into an ugly glare. That glare was directed at her.

"Rabbit!"

* * *

 **I am not dead. Exams and a new fandom got in the way. I re wrote this chapter like, seven to ten times because nothing about it is that interesting except for the last writing skills are mediocre but I kept you guys waiting long enough.**

 **Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting and following!**

 **New year is closeby and so is Christmas, so advanced Merry christmas and a Happy new year!**


	19. Chapter 19: Thieves

I am alive. That's all I got to say.

* * *

A cave, of all things a cave. It's discovery excited Akira initially, but, it also gave her a sense of fear.

'How many places like this exist? '

Her hunch was right, there were two opposing groups of ghouls. A group of idiots who were blinded enough to fight with Aogiri tree.

'This way, they might destroy each other, leaving us no work' said one voice in Akira's head. She scoffed.

'Or they may work together at one point'

The group walked on and on, bored but alert. Eyes of some ready to close because of the late hours, regretting taking up this field of work. Akira listened closely, making her footsteps as light as possible, trying to detect any abnormal sound.

Nothing, she got nothing.

They walked for a long time, before they were met with a dead end.

"This….why is there a dead end here? Is this it?" asked one of the investigators.

"Where are the ghouls then? There weren't any turns or anything. It's just the dead ghouls, and that's it."

"The trial ends here though. They have to be here!"

"Maybe this was for storage, what if they went back through the same path. They could easily lock us up right now and we won't have a way out."

"The lock was broken. They can't lock us in if they wanted to"

"Maybe, an exit or entrance that can only be used by ghouls, something we can't do."

"Don't give them so much credit."

Akira took in everything, this may have been for storage, but nothing indicated that. If this was for storage of people, cages and weapons to keep the people in check have to be here. There were no turns or escape routes, the floor sounded the same in every place, no trap doors.

'Something only ghouls can do….break walls? No, there was no ruble of any sort. Speed, but that wouldn't help here. Heightened senses, still won't help.'

"What about an exit from above?" said one investigator, his voice full of doubt.

'That's it! We can't reach high, there has to be something above'

"Get the flashlights, some look above, others check if there's anything abnormal in the floors and walls." said Akira.

She took out her flash light and pointed the beam of light upwards and walked forward with quinqe gripped tightly in her hand. It didn't take long for her to see a light shine off the cave walls. The light deflected in a strange angle.

"I think I found it!" said Akira, a few gathered with their flashlights and pointed it at the same place as Akira to get a better view.

A metallic and circular exit was fixed atop. This was no sewage line, this was made for as an entrance to someplace else.

"We need to report this"

It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to come by, grappling hooks and ropes in their hands.

They opened the metallic circle.

Grappling hooks were shot at the hole, and they climbed up fast. The noise of footsteps and screams were now very audible. A faint light entered through the hole. Akira climbed up and out along with the others through the tiny hole, she was greeted with the sight of aogiri ghouls fighting CCG.

'How did investigators get here?'

Ghouls ran at the sight of new investigators.

Akira opened up her quinqe and got to work. None of them put up much of a fight, but, this was not supposed to be easy. A rookie was not supposed to be able to take down so many. She knew the level of her skills, and though they were honed, it wasn't supposed to feel like fighting training dolls.

She turned to her right and saw a ghoul trying to fight. She sidestepped and turned a bit to stab her quinqe through the ghouls' head. Her hand was stained in blood as she took out the equally messy quinqe.

The ghoul fell, and she saw crimson light from behind him.

Crimson, fiery orange, purples and blues. It was an electrifying sunset. It should be around three in the morning, the sun would not rise until six.

The sunset moved as a whole, and it dissipated like a fading aurora.

A kagune, an ukaku kagune.

Face half covered in a purple mask, a ghoul with black hair. She could have mistaken the ghoul for a man if not for the voice that accompanied the ghoul.

The kagune was unique, the description of it beautiful in the handwriting of her father. He went into every detail and she imagined it. The first time she read it, her father was there. Her father would eliminate this one, and make a quinqe out of the thing. He would be happier for the rest of the week, and the quinqe would then be forgotten, to be replaced by another.

Not this time, no. He didn't return. The monster that was supposed to lighten her father's day, killed him.

Now it stood in front of her, triumphant. She took out the hybrid quinqe and held it tightly.

'Rabbit'

Akira's eyes blurred with tears, the ghouls eyes morphed into black and red. The ghoul dodged at the speed of light.

 _Die, die, die, die, die, DIE DIE DIE!_

It was a feral scream, her own voice alien to herself. She did not realize that she was this angry, this frustrated with the ghoul.

 _Calm….calm down_

Rabbit never attacked she only dodged her attacks and she felt like she was being played.

 _'You want to savor my death?! Don't look down on me you piece of shit!'_

 _Keep calm…steady, still, don't ._

"Mado get away now!"

Amon's voice. She doesn't care, why should she? He also killed her father, her only family. The man who climbed up a rank with the death of her father. No one cares about the weirdo or his kid.

 _'No. Calm down, you need to calm down or you will fall.'_

The ghoul tried to get away. Akira extended her arms as much as possible and lunged forward, her quinqe aimed at the ghoul's neck.

'I got her!'

Her quinqe caught onto the ghoul's collar, but, it slipped down, barely scratching Rabbit's skin

 _'No…no. No wait!'_

She fell knee first, shaking, the adrenaline rush now gone. She faced the tar road, grey and almost empty. The ghoul ran away instantly. Rabbit jumped over her and ran into the forest. The road was now clear of ghouls and investigators who were chasing each other in the forest.

 _'Right there…she was right there'_

"Mado!", a hand gripped at her shoulder harshly. She looked up, her superior looking down at her.

"You do not disobey orders. Now get up, we need to get the ghouls." said Amon, and left immediately.

Akira looked around, the CCG trucks stood around, empty of whatever contents they held.

 _'Move'_

She noticed something glisten from the truck lights, almost like how the cave's trap door shined. Outstretching her hand, she took the item. A chain that contained a ring was on this battlefield.

'Arata…Hikari?''

A wedding ring.

There was no one by the name of Arata in their current group.

So, who were Arata and Hikari?


End file.
